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OF 

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OF  CALIFORNIA 

IRVINE 


A   SHORT   HISTORY    OF   RUSSIA 


Peter  the  Great. 


A  SHORT  HISTORY   OF 

RUSSIA 


BY 

MARY  PLATT  PARMELE 


ILLUSTRATED 


NEW  YORK 

CHARLES  SCRIBNER'S  SONS 
1907 


COPYRIGHT,  1899,  1904,  1906, 
BY  MARY  PLATT  PARMELE 


PREFACE. 

IF  this  book  seems  to  have  departed  from 
the  proper  ideal  of  historic  narrative — if  it  is 
the  history  of  a  Power,  and  not  of  a  People — it 
is  because  the  Russian  people  have  had  no 
history  yet.  There  has  been  no  evolution  of 
a  Russian  nation,  but  only  of  a  vast  govern- 
ing system ;  and  the  words  "  Russian  Em- 
pire" stand  for  a  majestic  world-power  in 
which  the  mass  of  its  people  have  no  part.  A 
splendidly  embroidered  robe  of  Europeanism 
is  worn  over  a  chaotic,  undeveloped  mass  of 
semi-barbarism.  The  reasons  for  this  incon- 
gruity— the  natural  obstacles  with  which  Rus- 
sia has  had  to  contend;  the  strange  ethnic 
problems  with  which  it  has  had  to  deal;  its 
triumphant  entry  into  the  family  of  great  na- 
tions; and  the  circumstances  leading  to  the 
disastrous  conflict  recently  concluded,  and  the 
changed  conditions  resulting  from  it — such  is 
the  story  this  book  has  tried  to  tell. 

M.  P.  P. 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  I. 

PAGE 

Natural  Conditions — Greek  Colonies  on  the  Black 
Sea — The  Scythians — Ancient  Traces  of  Sla- 
vonic Race,  .  .  .  ...  .  .  I 

CHAPTER  II. 

Hunnish  Invasion — Distribution  of  Races — Sla- 
vonic Religion — Primitive  Political  Concep- 
tions,   10 

CHAPTER  III. 

The  Scandinavian  in  Russia — Rurik — Oleg — Igor 
— Olga's  Vengeance — Olga  a  Christian — Svia- 
toslaf — Russia  the  Champion  of  the  Greek 
Empire  in  Bulgaria — Norse  Dominance  in 
Heroic  Period,  .  .  .  .  .  .  .17 

CHAPTER  IV. 

System  of  Appanages — Vladimir  the  Sinner  Be- 
comes Vladimir  the  Saint — Russia  Forcibly 
Christianized — Causes  Underlying  Antagonism 
Between  Greek  and  Latin  Church — Russia 
Joined  to  the  Greek  Currents  and  Separated 

from  the  Latin, 26 

vii 


viii  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER  V. 

PACE 

Principalities — Headship  of  House  of  Rurik — Re- 
lation of  Grand  Prince  to  the  Others — Civiliz- 
ing Influences  from  Greek  Sources — Cruelty 
not  Indigenous  with  the  Slavs — How  and 
Whence  it  Came — Primitive  Social  Elements 
—  The  Drujina  —  End  of  Heroic  Period  — 
Andrew  Bogoliubski — New  Political  Center  at 
Suzdal, 34 

CHAPTER  VI. 

The  Republic  of  Novgorod — Invasion  of  Baltic 
Provinces  by  Germans — Livonian  and  Teu- 
tonic Orders — Russian  Territory  Becomes 
Prussia — Mongol  Invasion — Genghis  Khan — 
Cause  of  Downfall,  .  .  .  '.  .  .41 

CHAPTER  VII. 

The  Rule  of  the  Khans — Humiliation  of  Princes 
— Novgorod  the  Last  to  Fall  —  Alexander 
Nevski — Russia  Under  the  Yoke,  ...  51 

CHAPTER  VIII. 

Lithuania — Its  Union  with  Poland — A  Conquest  of 
Russia  Intended — Daniel  First  Prince  of  Mos- 
cow —  Moscow  Becomes  the  Ecclesiastical 
Center — Power  Gravitates  Toward  that  State 
— Centralization  —  Dmitri  Donskoi — Golden 
Horde  Crumbling, 59 


CONTENTS.  ix 

CHAPTER  IX. 

PAGE 

Origin  of  Ottoman  Empire — Turks  in  Constanti- 
nople— Moscow  the  Spiritual  Heir  to  Byzan- 
tium— Ivan  Married  to  a  Daughter  of  the 
Caesars — Civilizing  Streams  Flowing  into  Mos- 
cow— Work  for  Ivan  III. — And  How  He  Did 
it  —  Friendly  Relations  with  the  Khans — 
Reply  to  Demand  for  Tribute  in  1478 — The 
Yoke  Broken,  .  .  .  ...  .  .  .70 

CHAPTER  X. 

Vasili  the  Blind — Fall  of  Pskof — Splendor  of  Court 
Ceremonial — Nature  of  Struggle  which  was 
Evolving, 78 

CHAPTER  XI. 

Ivan  IV. — His  Childhood  —  Coup  d'Etat— Un- 
masking of  Adashef  and  Silvester — A  Gentle 
Youth  Developing  into  a  Monster — Solicitude 
for  the  Souls  of  his  Victims — Destruction  of 
Novgorod — England  Enters  Russia  by  a  Side 
Door — Friendship  with  Elizabeth — Acquisi- 
tion of  Siberia — The  Sobor  or  States-General 
Summoned — Ivan  Slays  his  Son  and  Heir — 
His  Death 85 

CHAPTER  XII. 

Boris  Godunof — The  Way  to  Power — A  Boyar 
Tsar  of  Russia — Serfdom  Created — The  False 
Dmitri — Mikhail  the  First  Romanoff,  .  .  96 


x  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER  XIII. 

PAGE 

Time  of  Preparation — The  Cossacks — Attempt  of 
Nikon — Death  of  Mikhail — Alexis — Sympa- 
thizes with  Charles  II. — Natalia — Death  of 
Alexis — Feodor,  .  *  .  ,  .  .  .104 

CHAPTER  XIV. 

Sophia  Regent — Peter  I. — Childhood — Visit  to 
Archangel — Azof  Captured — How  a  Navy  was 
Built  —  Sentiment  Concerning  Reforms — A 
Conspiracy  Nipped  in  the  Bud — Peter  As- 
tonishes Western  Europe ill 

CHAPTER  XV. 

Charles  XII.— Battle  of  Narva— St.  Petersburg 
Founded — Mazeppa — Poltova — Peter's  Mar- 
riage with  Catherine,  .  .  .  .  .  .124 

CHAPTER  XVI. 

Campaign  against  Turks  —  Disaster  Averted — 
Azof  Relinquished — Treaty  of  Pruth — Re- 
forms— The  Raskolniks — Visit  to  France — 
His  Son  Alexis  a  Traitor — His  Death,  .  .  132 

CHAPTER  XVII. 

Catherine  I. — Anna  Ivanovna — Ivan  VI. — Eliza- 
beth Petrovna — French  Influences  Succeed  the 
German — Peter  III. — His  Taking  off — Cathe- 
rine II 144 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  XVIII. 

PAGE 

Conditions  in  Poland — Victories  in  the  Black  Sea 
— Pugatchek  the  Pretender — Peasants'  War 
— Reforms — Partition  of  Poland — Character- 
istics of  Catherine  and  of  her  Reign — Her 
Death 156 

CHAPTER  XIX. 

Paul  I. — Napoleon  Bonaparte — Franco-Russian 
Understanding — Assassination  of  Paul — Alex- 
ander I., 168 

CHAPTER  XX. 

Plans  for  a  Liberal  Reign — Austerlitz — Alexander 
I.  an  Ally  of  Napoleon — Rupture  of  Friendship 
— French  Army  in  Moscow — Its  Retreat  and 
Extinction — The  Tsar  a  Liberator  in  Europe 
— Failure  of  Reforms — Araktcheef's  Severities 
— Conspiracy  at  Kief — Death  of  Alexander  I.,  175 

CHAPTER  XXI. 

Constantine'  s  Renunciation — Revolt — Succession 
of  Nicholas  I. — Order  Restored — Character  of 
Nicholas — His  Policy — Polish  Insurrection — 
Reactionary  Measures — Europe  Excluded — 
Turco- Russian  Understanding — Beginning  of 
the  Great  Diplomatic  Game — Nature  of  the 
Eastern  Question — Intellectual  Expansion  in 
Russia 187 

CHAPTER    XXII. 

1848  in  Europe — Nicholas  Aids  Francis  Joseph — 
Hungary  Subjugated — Nicholas  claims  to  be 
Protector  of  Eastern  Christendom — Attempt 


CONTENTS. 


to  Secure  England's  Co-operation  —  Russia's 
Grievance  against  Turkey  —  His  Demands  — 
France  and  England  in  Alliance  for  Defense  of 
Sultan  —  Allied  Armies  in  the  Black  Sea  —  The 
Crimean  War  —  Odessa  —  Alma  —  Siege  of  Se- 
vastopol —  Death  of  Nicholas  I.,  »  .  .  201 

CHAPTER  XXIII. 

Alexander  II.  —  End  of  Crimean  War  —  Reaction 
Toward  Liberalism  —  Emancipation  of  Serfs  — 
Means  by  which  It  was  Effected  —  Patriarchal- 
ism  Retained  —  Hopes  Awakened  in  Poland  — 
Rebellion  —  How  it  was  Disposed  of,  .  .213 

CHAPTER  XXIV. 

Reaction  toward  Severity  —  Bulgaria  and  the 
Bashi-Bazuks  —  Russia  the  Champion  of  the 
Balkan  States  —  Turco-Russian  War  —  Treaty 
of  San  Stefano  —  Sentiment  in  Europe  —  Con- 
gress of  Berlin  —  Diplomatic  Defeat  of  Russia 
—  Waning  Popularity  of  Alexander  II.,  .  .  222 

CHAPTER  XXV. 

Emancipation  a  Disappointment  —  Social  Discon- 
tent —  Birth  of  Nihilism  —  Assassination  of 
Alexander  II.  —  The  Peasants'  Wreath  —  Alex- 
ander III.  —  A  Joyless  Reign  —  His  Death,  .  229 

CHAPTER  XXVI. 

Nicholas  II.  —  Russification  of  Finland  —  Invita- 
tion to  Disarmament  —  Brief  Review  of  Con- 
ditions, .........  241 


CONTENTS.  Xlil 

SUPPLEMENT. 

PAGE 

Conditions  Preceding  Russo-Japanese  War  —  Na- 
ture of  Dispute — Results  of  Conflict — Peace 
Conference  at   Portsmouth — Treaty  Signed — 
A  National  Assembly — Dissolution    of    First  • 
Russian  Parliament — Present  Outlook,   .     .     .  249 


ILLUSTRATIONS. 


Peter  the  Great Frontispiece 

FACING 
PAGE 

The  Czar  Iva"n  the  Terrible  and  his  son  Iva"n 

Iva"novitch 80 

The  Coronation  of  the  Czar  Alexander  III.,  1883     238 

Scene  during  the  Russo-Japanese  War:  Russian 

soldiers  on  the  march  in  Manchuria        .       .284 


A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA 


CHAPTER   I 

PRIMITIVE   CONDITIONS  AND  RACES 

THE  topography  of  a  country  is  to  some 
extent  a  prophecy  of  its  future.  Had  there 
been  no  Mississippi  coursing  for  three  thou- 
sand miles  through  the  North  American  Con- 
tinent, no  Ohio  and  Missouri  bisecting  it 
from  east  to  west,  no  great  inland  seas  in- 
denting and  watering  it,  no  fertile  prairies 
stretching  across  its  vast  areas,  how  differ- 
ent would  have  been  the  history  of  our  own 
land. 

Russia  is  the  strange  product  of  strange 
physical  conditions.  Nature  was  not  in  im- 
petuous mood  when  she  created  this  greater 
half  of  Europe,  nor  was  she  generous,  except 
in  the  matter  of  space.  She  was  slow,  slug- 
gish, but  inexorable.  No  volcanic  energies 
threw  up  rocky  ridges  and  ramparts  in  Ti- 
tanic rage,  and  then  repentantly  clothed  them 
with  lovely  verdure  as  in  Spain,  Italy,  and 


a  A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 

elsewhere.  No  hungry  sea  rushed  in  and 
tore  her  coast  into  fragments.  It  would  seem 
to  have  been  just  a  cold-blooded  experiment  in 
subjecting  a  vast  region  to  the  most  rigorous 
and  least  generous  conditions  possible,  leav- 
ing it  unshielded  alike  from  Polar  winds  in 
winter  or  scorching  heat  in  summer,  divesting 
it  of  beauty  and  of  charm,  and  then  casting 
this  arid,  frigid,  torpid  land  to  a  branch  of  the 
human  family  as  unique  as  its  own  habita- 
tion; separating  it  by  natural  and  almost  im- 
passable barriers  from  civilizing  influences, 
and  in  strange  isolation  leaving  it  to  work 
out  its  own  problem  of  development. 

We  have  only  to  look  on  the  map  at  the 
ragged  coast-lines  of  Greece,  Italy,  and  the 
British  Isles  to  realize  how  powerful  a  fac- 
tor the  sea  has  been  in  great  civilizations. 
Russia,  like  a  thirsty  giant,  has  for  centuries 
been  struggling  to  get  to  the  tides  which  so 
generously  wash  the  rest  of  Europe.  During 
the  earlier  periods  of  her  history  she  had  not 
a  foot  of  seaboard;  and  even  now  she  possesses 
only  a  meager  portion  of  coast-line  for  such 
an  extent  of  territory;  one-half  of  this  being, 
except  for  three  months  in  the  year,  sealed  up 
with  ice. 


,       A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.  3 

But  Russia  is  deficient  in  still  another  essen- 
tial feature.  Every  other  European  country 
possesses  a  mountain  system  which  gives  form 
and  solidity  to  its  structure.  She  alone  has 
no  such  system.  No  skeleton  or  backbone 
gives  promise  of  stability  to  the  dull  expanse 
of  plains  through  which  flow  her  great  lazy 
rivers,  with  scarce  energy  enough  to  carry 
their  burdens  to  the  sea.  Mountains  she  has, 
but  she  shares  them  with  her  neighbors;  and 
the  Carpathians,  Caucasus,  and  Ural  are  sim- 
ply a  continuous  girdle  for  a  vast  inclosure  of 
plateaus  of  varying  altitudes,*  and  while  else- 
where it  is  the  office  of  great  mountain  ranges 
to  nourish,  to  enrich,  and  to  beautify,  in  this 
strange  land  they  seem  designed  only  to  im- 
prison. 

It  is  obvious  that  in  a  country  so  destitute  of 
seaboard,  its  rivers  must  assume  an  immense 
importance.  The  history,  the  very  life  of 
Russia  clusters  about  its  three  great  rivers. 
These  have  been  the  arteries  which  have  nour- 
ished, and  indeed  created,  this  strange  empire. 
The  Volga,  with  its  seventy-five  mouths 
emptying  into  the  Caspian  Sea,  like  a  lazy 

*  In  the  Tatar  language   the   word   Ural  signifies 
"  girdle." 


4  A  SHORT  HISTORY  OP  RUSSIA. 

leviathan  brought  back  currents  from  the 
Orient;  then  the  Dnieper,  flowing  into  the 
Black  Sea,  opened  up  that  communication 
with  Byzantium  which  more  than  anything 
else  has  influenced  the  character  of  Russian 
development;  and  finally,  in  comparatively 
recent  times,  the  Neva  has  borne  those  long- 
sought  civilizing  streams  from  Western  Eu- 
rope which  have  made  of  it  a  modern  state 
and  joined  it  to  the  European  family  of  na- 
tions. 

It  would  seem  that  the  great  region  we  now 
call  Russia  was  predestined  to  become  one 
empire.  No  one  part  could  exist  without  all 
the  others.  In  the  north  is  the  zone  of  forests, 
extending  from  the  region  of  Moscow  and 
Novgorod  to  the  Arctic  Circle.  At  the  ex- 
treme southeast,  north  of  the  Caspian  Sea  and 
at  the  gateway  leading  into  Asia,  are  the 
Barren  Steppes,  unsuited  to  agriculture  or 
to  civilized  living;  fit  only  for  the  raising 
of  cattle  and  the  existence  of  Asiatic  nomads, 
who  to  this  day  make  it  their  home. 

Between  these  two  extremes  lie  two  other 
zones  of  extraordinary  character,  the  Black 
Lands  and  the  Arable  Steppes,  or  prairies. 
The  former  zone,  which  is  of  immense  extent, 


A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.  5 

is  covered  with  a  deep  bed  of  black  mold  of 
inexhaustible  fertility,  which  without  manure 
produces  the  richest  harvests,  and  has  done 
so  since  the  time  of  Herodotus,  at  which 
period  it  was  the  granary  of  Athens  and  of 
Eastern  Europe. 

The  companion  zone,  running  parallel  with 
this,  known  as  the  Arable  Steppes,  which 
nearly  resembles  the  American  prairies,  is  al- 
most as  remarkable  as  the  Black  Lands.  Its 
soil,  although  fertile,  has  to  be  renewed.  But 
an  amazing  vegetation  covers  this  great  area 
in  summer  with  an  ocean  of  verdure  six  or 
eight  feet  high,  in  which  men  and  cattle  may 
hide  as  in  a  forest.  It  is  these  two  zones  in 
the  heart  of  Russia  that  have  fed  millions  of 
people  for  centuries,  which  make  her  now  one 
of  the  greatest  competitors  in  the  markets  of 
the  world. 

It  is  easy  to  see  the  interdependence  created 
by  this  specialization  in  production,  and  the 
economic  necessity  it  has  imposed  for  an  un- 
divided empire.  The  forest  zone  could  not 
exist  without  the  corn  of  the  Black  Lands  and 
the  Prairies,  nor  without  the  cattle  of  the 
Steppes.  Nor  could  those  treeless  regions 
exist  without  the  wood  of  the  forests.  So  it 


6  A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 

is  obvious  that  when  Nature  girdled  this  east- 
ern half  of  Europe,  she  marked  it  for  one  vast 
empire;  and  when  she  covered  those  monot- 
onous plateaus  with  a  black  mantle  of  ex- 
traordinary fertility,  she  decreed  that  the  Rus- 
sians should  be  an  agricultural  people.  And 
when  she  created  natural  conditions  unmiti- 
gated and  unparalleled  in  severity,  she  or- 
dained that  this  race  of  toilers  should  be 
patient  and  submissive  under  austerities;  that 
their  pulse  should  be  set  to  a  slow,  even 
rhythm,  in  harmony  with  the  low  key  in  which 
Nature  spoke  to  them. 

It  is  impossible  to  say  when  an  Asiatic 
stream  began  to  pour  into  Europe  over  the 
arid  steppes  north  of  the  Caspian.  But  we 
know  that  as  early  as  the  fifth  century  B.  C. 
the  Greeks  had  established  trading  stations  on 
the  northern  shores  of  the  Black  Sea,  and  that 
these  in  the  fourth  century  had  become  flour- 
ishing colonies  through  their  trade  with  the 
motley  races  of  barbarians  that  swarmed  about 
that  region,  who  by  the  Greeks  were  indis- 
criminately designated  by  the  common  name 
of  Scythians. 

The  Greek  colonists,  who  always  carried 
with  them  their  religion,  their  Homer,  their 


A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.  7 

love  of  beauty,  and  the  arts  of  their  mother 
cities,  established  themselves  on  and  about  the 
promontory  of  the  Crimea,  and  built  their  city 
of  Chersonesos  where  now  is  Sebastopol. 
They  first  entered  into  wars  and  then  alliances 
with  these  Scythians,  who  served  them  as 
middle-men  in  trade  with  the  tribes  beyond, 
and  in  time  a  Graeco-Scythian  state  of  the 
Bosphorus  came  into  existence. 

Herodotus  in  the  fifth  century  wrote  much 
about  these  so-called  Scythians,  whom  he 
divides  into  the  agricultural  Scythians,  pre- 
sumably of  the  Black  Lands,  and  the  nomad 
Scythians,  of  the  Barren  Steppes.  His  ex- 
travagant and  fanciful  pictures  of  those  bar- 
barians have  long  been  studied  by  the  curious; 
but  light  from  an  unexpected  source  has  been 
thrown  upon  the  subject,  and  Greek  genius 
has  rescued  for  us  the  type  of  humanity  first 
known  in  Russia. 

There  are  now  in  the  museum  at  St.  Peters- 
burg two  priceless  works  of  art  found  in  re- 
cent years  in  a  tomb  in  Southern  Russia. 
They  are  two  vases  of  mingled  gold  and  silver 
upon  which  are  wiought  pictures  more  faith- 
ful and  more  eloquent  than  those  drawn  by 
Herodotus.  These  figures  of  the  Scythians, 


8  A  SHORT  HISTORY  OP  RUSSIA. 

drawn  probably  as  early  as  400  B.  C,  repro- 
duce unmistakably  the  Russian  peasant  of 
to-day.  The  same  bearded,  heavy-featured 
faces;  the  long  hair  coming  from  beneath  the 
same  peaked  cap;  the  loose  tunic  bound  by . 
a  girdle;  the  trousers  tucked  into  the  boots, 
and  the  general  type,  not  alone  distinctly 
Aryan,  but  Slavonic.  And  not  only  that;  we 
see  them  breaking  in  and  bridling  their  horses, 
in  precisely  the  same  way  as  the  Russian  peas- 
ant does  to-day  on  those  same  plains.  As- 
suredly the  vexed  question  concerning  the 
Scythians  is  in  a  measure  answered;  and  we 
know  that  some  of  them  at  least  were  Sla- 
vonic. 

But  the  passing  illumination  produced  by 
the  approach  of  Greek  civilization  did  not 
penetrate  to  the  region  beyond,  where  was  a 
tumbling,  seething  world  of  Asiatic  tribes  and 
peoples,  Aryan,  Tatar,  and  Turk,  more  or  less 
mingled  in  varying  shades  of  barbarism,  all 
striving  for  mastery. 

This  elemental  struggle  was  to  resolve  itself 
into  one  between  Aryan  and  non-Aryan — the 
Slav  and  the  Finn;  and  this  again  into  one  be- 
tween the  various  members  of  the  Slavonic 
family;  then  a  life-and-death  struggle  with 


A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.  9 

Asiatic  barbarism  in  its  worst  form  (the 
Mongol),  with  Tatar  and  Turk  always  remain- 
ing as  disturbing  factors. 

How,  and  the  steps  by  which,  the  least  pow- 
erful branch  of  the  Slavonic  race  obtained  the 
mastery  and  headship  of  Russia  and  has  come 
to  be  one  of  the  leading  powers  of  the  earth, 
is  the  story  this  book  will  try  to  tell. 


CHAPTER   II 

SLAVONIC   RELIGIOUS    AND   POLITICAL   SYSTEMS 

IN  speaking-  of  this  eastern  half  of  Europe 
as  Russia,  we  have  been  borrowing  from  the 
future.  At  the  time  we  have  been  consider- 
ing there  was  no  Russia.  The  world  into 
which  Christ  came  contained  no  Russia.  The 
Roman  Empire  rose  and  fell,  and  still  there 
was  no  Russia.  Spain,  Italy,  France,  and 
England  were  taking  on  a  new  form  of  life 
through  the  infusion  of  Teuton  strength,  and 
modern  Europe  was  coming  into  being,  and 
still  the  very  name  of  Russia  did  not  exist. 
The  great  expanse  of  plains,  with  its  medley 
of  Oriental  barbarism,  was  to  Europe  the 
obscure  region  through  which  had  come  the 
Hunnish  invasion  from  Asia. 

This  catastrophe  was  the  only  experience 
that  this  land  had  in  common  with  the  rest  of 
Europe.  The  Goths  had  established  an  em- 
pire where  the  ancient  Graeco-Scythians  had 
once  been.  The  overthrowing  of  this  Gothic 
Empire  was  the  beginning  of  Attila's  Euro- 


A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.  II 

pean  conquests;  and  the  passage  of  the  Hun- 
nish  horde,  precisely  as  in  the  rest  of  Europe, 
produced  a  complete  overturning.  A  torrent 
of  Oriental  races,  Finns,  Bulgarians,  Magyars, 
and  others,  rushed  in  upon  the  track  of  the 
Huns,  and  filled  up  the  spaces  deserted  by  the 
Goths.  Here  as  elsewhere  the  Hun  com- 
pleted his  appointed  task  of  a  rearrangement 
of  races;  thus  fundamentally  changing  the 
whole  course  of  future  events.  Perhaps  there 
would  be  no  Magyar  race  in  Hungary,  and  cer- 
tainly a  different  history  to  write  of  Russia,  had 
there  been  no  Hunnish  invasion  in  375  A.  D. 

The  old  Roman  Empire,  which  in  its  decay 
had  divided  into  an  Eastern  and  a  Western 
Empire  (in  the  fourth  century),  had  by  the 
fifth  century  succumbed  to  the  new  forces 
which  assailed  it,  leaving  only  a  glittering 
remnant  at  Byzantium. 

The  Eastern  or  Byzantine  Empire,  rich  in 
pride  and  pretension,  but  poor  in  power,  was 
destined  to  stand  for  one  thousand  years  more, 
the  shining  conservator  of  the  Christian  re- 
ligion (although  in  a  form  quite  different  from 
the  Church  of  Rome)  and  of  Greek  culture. 
It  is  impossible  to  imagine  what  our  civiliza- 
tion would  be  to-day  if  this  splendid  fragment 


12  A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 

of  the  Roman  Empire  had  not  stood  in  shin- 
ing petrifaction  during  the  ages  of  darkness, 
guarding  the  treasures  of  a  dead  past. 

While  these  tremendous  changes  were  oc- 
curring in  the  West,  unconscious  as  toiling 
insects  the  various  peoples  in  Russia  were  pre- 
paring for  an  unknown  future.  The  Bul- 
garians were  occupying  large  spaces  in  the 
South.  The  Finns,  who  had  been  driven  by 
the  Bulgarians  from  their  home  upon  the 
Volga,  had  centered  in  the  Northwest  near  the 
Baltic,  their  vigorous  branches  mingled  more 
or  less  with  other  Asiatic  races,  stretching 
here  and  there  in  the  North,  South,  and  East. 
The  Russian  Slavs,  as  the  parent  stem  is 
called,  were  distributing  themselves  along  a 
strip  of  territory  running  north  and  south 
along  the  line  of  the  Dnieper;  while  the  terri- 
ble Turks,  and  still  more  terrible  Tatar  tribes, 
hovered  chiefly  about  the  Black,  the  Caspian, 
and  the  Sea  of  Azof.  No  dream  of  unity  had 
come  to  anyone.  But  had  there  been  a  fore- 
cast then  of  the  future,  it  would  have  been  said 
that  the  more  finely  organized  Finn  would  be- 
come the  dominant  race;  or  perhaps  the  Bul- 
garian, who  was  showing  capacity  for  empire- 
building;  but  certainly  not  that  helpless  Sla- 


A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.  13 

vonic  people  wedged  in  between  their 
stronger  neighbors. 

But  there  were  no  large  ambitions  yet.  It 
meant  nothing  to  them  that  there  was  a  new 
"  Holy  Roman  Empire,"  and  that  Charle- 
magne had  been  crowned  at  Rome  successor 
of  the  Roman  Caesars  (800  A.  D.);  nor  that 
an  England  had  just  been  consolidated  into 
one  kingdom.  Nor  did  it  concern  them  that 
the  Saracen  had  overthrown  a  Gothic  empire 
in  Spain  (710).  For  them  these  things  did 
not  exist.  But  they  knew  about  Constantino- 
ple. The  Byzantine  Empire  was  the  sun  which 
shone  beyond  their  horizon,  and  was  for  them 
the  supreme  type  of  power  and  earthly  splen- 
dor. Whatever  ambitions  and  aspirations 
would  in  time  awaken  in  these  Oriental  breasts 
must  inevitably  have  for  their  ideal  the  splen- 
did despotism  of  the  Eastern  Caesars.  But 
that  stage  had  not  yet  been  reached. 

Although  branches  of  the  Slavonic  race  had 
separated  from  the  parent  stem,  bearing  differ- 
ent names,  the  Bohemians  on  the  Vistula,  the 
Poliani  in  what  was  to  become  Poland,  the 
Lithuanians  near  the  Baltic,  and  minor  tribes 
scattered  elsewhere,  from  the  Peloponnesus 
to  the  Baltic,  all  had  the  same  general 


14  A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 

characteristics.  Their  religion,  like  that  of  all 
Aryan  peoples,  was  a  pantheism  founded  upon 
the  phenomena  of  nature.  In  their  Pantheon 
there  was  a  Volos,  a  solar  deity  who,  like  the 
Greek  Apollo,  was  inspirer  of  poets  and  pro- 
tector of  the  flocks — Perun,  God  of  Thunder 
— Stribog,  the  father  of  the  Winds,  like  ^Lolus 
— a  Proteus  who  could  assume  all  shapes — 
Centaurs,  Vampires,  and  hosts  of  minor  dei- 
ties, good  and  evil.  There  were  neither  tem- 
ples nor  priests,  but  the  oak  was  venerated 
and  consecrated  to  Perun;  and  rude  idols  of 
wood  stood  upon  the  hills,  where  sacrifices 
were  offered  to  them  and  they  were  wor- 
shiped by  the  people. 

They  believed  that  their  dead  passed  into 
a  future  life,  and  from  the  time  of  the  early 
Scythians  it  had  been  the  custom  to  strangle 
a  male  and  a  female  servant  of  the  deceased  to 
accompany  him  on  his  journey  to  the  other 
land.  The  barbarity  of  their  religious  rites 
varied  with  the  different  tribes,  but  the  gen- 
eral characteristics  were  the  same,  and  the 
people  everywhere  were  profoundly  attached 
to  their  pagan  ceremonies  and  under  the  do- 
minion of  an  intense  form  of  superstition. 

Slav  society  was  everywhere  founded  upon 


A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.  15 

the  patriarchal  principle.  The  father  was  ab- 
solute head  of  the  family,  his  authority  pass- 
ing undiminished  upon  his  death  to  the  oldest 
surviving  member.  This  was  the  social  unit. 

The  Commune,  or  Mir,  was  only  the  expan- 
sion of  the  family,  and  was  subject  to  the  au- 
thority of  a  council,  composed  of  the  elders 
of  the  several  families,  called  the  vetche.  The 
village  lands  were  held  in  common  by  this 
association.  The  territory  was  the  common 
property  of  the  whole.  No  hay  could  be  cut 
nor  fish  caught  without  permission  from  the 
vetche.  Then  all  shared  alike  the  benefit  of  the 
enterprise. 

The  communes  nearest  together  formed  a 
still  larger  group  called  a  Volost;  that  is,  a 
canton  or  parish,  which  was  governed  by  a 
council  composed  of  the  elders  of  the  com- 
munes, one  of  whom  was  recognized  as  the 
chief.  Beyond  this  the  idea  of  combination 
or  unity  did  not  extend.  Such  was  the  prim- 
itive form  of  society  which  was  common  to  all 
the  Slavonic  branches.  It  was  communistic, 
patriarchal,  and  just  to  the  individual.  They 
had  no  conception  of  tribal  unity,  nor  of  a 
sovereignty  which  shouW  include  the  whole. 
If  the  Slav  ever  came  under  the  despotism  of 


16  A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 

a  strong  personal  government,  the  idea  must 
come  from  some  external  source;  it  must  be 
imposed,  not  grow;  for  it  was  not  indigenous 
in  the  character  of  the  people.  It  would  be 
perfectly  natural  for  them  to  submit  to  it  if  it 
came,  for  they  were  a  passive  people,  but  they 
were  incapable  of  creating  it. 


CHAPTER   III 

RURIK    AND    HIS    DESCENDANTS 

THE  Russian  Slavs  were  an  agricultural,  not 
a  warlike,  people.  They  fought  bravely,  but 
naked  to  the  waist,  and  with  no  idea  of  mili- 
tary organization,  so  were  of  course  no  match 
for  the  Turks,  well  skilled  in  the  arts  of  war, 
nor  for  the  armed  bands  of  Scandinavian  mer- 
chants, who  made  their  territory  a  highway 
by  which  to  reach  the  Greek  provinces.  All 
the  Slav  asked  was  to  be  permitted  to  gather 
his  harvests,  and  dwell  in  his  wooden  towns 
and  villages  in  peace.  But  this  he  could  not 
do.  Not  only  was  he  under  tribute  to  the 
Khazarui  (a  powerful  tribe  of  mingled  Fin- 
nish and  Turkish  blood),  and  harried  by  the 
Turks,  in  the  South;  overrun  by  the  Finns  and 
Lithuanians  in  the  North;  but  in  his  imperfect 
political  condition  he  was  broken  up  into 
minute  divisions,  canton  incessantly  at  war 
with  canton,  and  there  could  be  no  peace. 
The  roving  bands  of  Scandinavian  traders 
and  freebooters  were  alternately  his  perse- 
cutors and  protectors.  After  burning  his  vil- 
17 


18  A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 

lages  for  some  fancied  offense,  and  appropriat- 
ing his  cattle  and  corn,  they  would  sell  their 
service  for  the  protection  of  Kief,  Novgorod, 
and  Pskof  as  freely  as  they  did  the  same  thing 
to  Constantinople  and  the  Greek  cities.  In 
other  words,  these  brilliant,  masterful  intrud- 
ers were  Northmen,  and  can  undoubtedly  be 
identified  with  those  roving  sea-kings  who 
terrorized  Western  Europe  for  a  long  and 
dreary  period. 

The  disheartened  Slavs  of  Novgorod  came 
to  a  momentous  decision.  They  invited  these 
Varangians — as  they  are  called — to  come  and 
administer  their  government.  They  said: 
"  Our  land  is  great  and  fruitful,  but  it  lacks 
order  and  justice.  Come — take  possession, 
and  govern  us."  With  the  arrival  from 
Sweden  of  the  three  Vikings,  Rurik  and  his 
two  brothers  Sineus  and  Truvor,  the  true  his- 
tory of  Russia  begins,  and  the  one  thousandth 
anniversary  of  that  event  was  commemorated 
at  Novgorod  in  the  year  1862. 

Rurik  was  the  Clovis  of  Russia.  When 
with  his  band  of  followers  he  was  established 
at  Novgorod  the  name  of  Russia  came  into  ex- 
istence, supposedly  from  the  Finnish  word 
ruotsi,  meaning  rowers  or  sea-farers.  Sla- 


A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.  ig 

vonia  was  not  only  christened  but  regenerated 
at  this  period,  and  infused  into  it  were  the  new 
elements  of  martial  order,  discipline,  and  the 
habit  of  implicit  obedience  to  a  chosen  or 
hereditary  chief;  and  as  Rurik's  brothers  soon 
conveniently  died,  their  territory  also  passed 
to  him,  and  he  assumed  the  title  of  Grand 
Prince. 

Upon  the  death  of  Rurik  in  879,  his  younger 
brother  Oleg  succeeded  him  as  regent  during 
the  minority  of  his  son  Igor;  and  when  two 
more  Varangian  brothers — Askold  and  Dir 
— in  the  same  manner — except  that  they  were 
not  invited — took  possession  of  Kief  on  the 
Dnieper  and  set  up  a  rival  principality  in  the 
South  with  ambitious  designs  upon  Byzan- 
tium, Oleg  promptly  had  them  assassinated, 
added  their  territory  to  the  dominion  of  Igor, 
and  removed  the  capital  from  Novgorod  to 
Kief — saying,  "  Let  Kief  be  the  mother  of 
Russian  cities!  "  Then  after  selecting  a  wife 
named  Olga  for  the  young  Igor,  he  turned  his 
attention  toward  Byzantium,  the  powerful 
magnet  about  which  Russian  policy  was  going 
to  revolve  for  many  centuries. 

So  invincible  and  so  wise  was  this  Oleg 
that  he  was  believed  to  be  a  sorcerer.  When 


20  A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 

the  Greek  emperor  blockaded  the  passage  of 
the  Bosphorus  in  907,  he  placed  his  two 
thousand  boats  (!)  upon  wheels,  and  let  the 
sails  carry  them  overland  to  the  gates  of  Con- 
stantinople. The  Russian  poet  Pushkin  has 
made  this  the  subject  of  a  poem  which  tells 
how  Oleg,  after  exacting  tribute  from  the 
frightened  Emperor  Leo  VI.,  in  true  Norse 
fashion,  hung  his  shield  upon  the  golden  gates 
as  a  parting  insult. 

Again  and  again  were  the  Greeks  compelled 
to  pay  for  immunity  from  these  invasions  of 
the  Varangian  princes.  After  the  death  of 
Oleg,  Igor  reigned,  and  in  941  led  another  ex- 
pedition against  Constantinople  which  we  are 
told  was  driven  back  by  "  Greek-fire."  Then 
enlisting  the  aid  of  the  Pechenegs,  a  ferocious 
Tatar  tribe,  he  returned  with  such  fury,  and 
inflicted  such  atrocities,  that  the  Greek  Em- 
peror begged  for  mercy  and  offered  to  pay  any 
price  to  be  left  alone.  The  invaders  said:  "  If 
Caesar  speaks  thus,  what  more  do  we  want 
than  to  have  gold  and  silver  and  silks  without 
fighting."  A  treaty  of  peace  was  signed 
(945),  the  Russians  swearing  by  their  god 
Perum,  and  the  Greeks  by  the  Gospels; 
and  the  victorious  Igor  turned  his  face 


A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.  21 

toward  Kief.  But  he  was  never  to  reach  that 
place. 

The  Drevlians,  the  most  savage  of  the  Tatar 
tribes,  had  been  forced  to  pay  him  a  large 
tribute,  and  were  meditating  upon  their  re- 
venge. They  said:  "  Let  us  kill  the  wolf  or 
we  will  lose  the  flock."  They  watched  their 
opportunity,  seized  him,  tied  him  to  two 
young  trees  bent  forcibly  together;  then,  let- 
ting them  spring  apart,  the  son  of  Rurik  was 
torn  to  pieces. 

No  act  of  the  wise  regent  Oleg  was  more 
fruitful  in  consequences  than  the  choice  of  a 
wife  for  the  young  Igor.  Olga,  who  acted  as 
regent  during  the  minority  of  her  son,  was 
destined  to  be  not  only  the  heroine  of  the 
Epic  Cycle  in  Russia,  but  the  first  apostle  of 
Christianity  in  that  heathen  land;  canonized 
by  the  Church,  and  remembered  as  "  the  first 
Russian  who  mounted  to  the  Heavenly  King- 
dom." 

When  the  Drevlians  sent  gifts  to  appease 
her  wrath  at  the  murder  of  Igor,  and  offered 
her  the  hand  of  their  prince,  she  had  the  mes- 
sengers buried  alive.  All  she  asked  was  three 
pigeons  and  three  sparrows  from  every  house 
in  their  capital  town.  Lighted  tow  was  tied 


22  A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 

to  the  tails  of  the  birds,  which  were  then  per- 
mitted to  fly  back  to  their  homes  under  the 
eaves  of  the  thatched  houses.  In  the  confla- 
gration which  followed,  the  inhabitants  were 
massacred  in  a  pleasing  variety  of  ways:  some 
strangled,  some  smothered  in  vapor,  some 
buried  alive,  and  those  remaining  reduced  to 
slavery. 

But  an  extraordinary  transformation  was  at 
hand;  and  this  vindictive  heathen  woman  was 
going  to  be  changed  to  an  ardent  convert  to 
the  Christian  faith.  Nestor,  who  is  the  Rus- 
sian Herodotus,  relates  that  she  went  to  Con- 
stantinople in  955,  to  inquire  into  the  mys- 
teries of  the  Christian  Church.  The  emperor 
was  astonished,  it  is  said,  at  the  strength  and 
adroitness  of  her  mind.  She  was  baptized  by 
the  Greek  Patriarch,  under  the  new  name  of 
Helen,  the  emperor  acting  as  her  god- 
father. 

There  were  already  a  few  Christians  in  Kief, 
but  so  unpopular  was  the  new  religion  that 
Olga's  son  Sviatoslaf,  upon  reaching  his  ma- 
jority, absolutely  refused  to  make  himself 
ridiculous  by  adopting  his  mother's  faith. 
"  My  men  will  mock  me,"  was  his  reply  to 
Olga's  entreaties,  and  Nestor  adds  "  that  he 


A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.  23 

often  became  furious  with  her"  for  her  im- 
portunity. 

Sviatoslaf,  the  son  of  Igor  and  Olga,  al- 
though the  first  prince  to  bear  a  Russian 
name,  was  the  very  type  of  the  cunning,  am- 
bitious, and  intrepid  Northman,  and  his 
brief  reign  (964-972)  displayed  all  these 
qualities.  He  defeated  the  Khazarui,  the 
most  civilized  of  all  those  Oriental  people,  and 
once  the  most  powerful.  He  subjugated  the 
Pechenegs,  perhaps  the  most  brutal  and  least 
civilized  of  all  the  barbarians.  But  these 
were  only  incidental  to  his  real  purpose. 

The  Bulgarian  Empire  was  large,  and  had 
played  an  important  part  in  the  past.  It  had 
a  Tsar,  while  Russia  had  only  a  Grand  Prince, 
and,  although  now  declining  in  strength,  was 
a  troublesome  neighbor  to  the  Greek  Empire. 
The  oft-repeated  mistake  of  inviting  the  aid  of 
another  people  was  committed.  Nothing 
could  have  better  pleased  Sviatoslaf  than  to 
assist  the  Greek  Empire,  and  when  he  cap- 
tured the  Bulgarian  capital  city  on  the  Dan- 
ube, and  even  talked  of  making  it  his  own 
capital  instead  of  Kief,  it  looked  as  if  a  great 
Slav  Empire  was  forming  with  its  center 
almost  within  sight  of  Constantinople.  The 


34  A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 

Greeks  were  dismayed.  With  the  Russians  in 
the  Balkan  Peninsula,  the  center  of  their  do- 
minions upon  the  Danube — with  the  Scythian 
hordes  in  the  South  ready  to  do  their  bidding 
— and  with  scattered  Slavonic  tribes  from 
Macedon  to  the  Peloponnesos  gravitating 
toward  them,  what  might  they  not  do?  No 
more  serious  danger  had  ever  threatened  the 
Empire  of  the  East.  They  rushed  to  rescue 
Bulgaria  from  the  very  enemy  they  had  invited 
to  overthrow  it.  After  a  prolonged  struggle, 
and  in  spite  of  the  wild  courage  displayed  by 
Sviatoslaf,  he  was  driven  back,  and  compelled 
to  swear  by  Perun  and  Volos  never  again  to 
invade  Bulgaria.  If  they  broke  their  vows, 
might  they  become  "  as  yellow  as  gold,  and 
perish  by  their  own  arms."  But  this  was  for 
Sviatoslaf  the  last  invasion  of  any  land.  The 
avenging  Pechenegs  were  waiting  in  ambush 
for  his  return.  They  cut  off  his  head  and  pre- 
sented his  skull  to  their  Prince  as  a  drinking 
cup  (972). 

It  seems  scarcely  necessary  to  call  attention 
to  the  fact  that  the  transforming  energy  in 
this  early  period  of  Russian  history  was  not 
in  the  native  people;  but  that  the  Slav,  in  the 
hands  of  his  Norse  rulers,  was  as  clay  in  the 


A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.  25 

hands  of  the  potter.  In  the  treaty  of  peace 
signed  at  Kief  (945)  by  the  victorious  Igor, 
of  the  fifty  names  recorded  by  Nestor  only 
three  were  Slavonic  and  the  rest  Scandina- 
vian. There  can  be  no  doubt  which  was  the 
dominant  race  in  this  the  heroic  age  of  Russia. 

So  we  have  seen  a  weaker  people  submit- 
ting to  the  rule  of  a  stronger,  not  by  conquest, 
like  Spain  under  the  Visigoths;  not  overrun 
and  overridden  as  Britain  by  the  Angles  and 
Saxons  and  Gaul  by  the  Franks;  but,  in  rec- 
ognition of  its  own  helplessness,  voluntarily 
becoming  subject  to  the  control  of  strangers. 

And  we  see  at  the  same  time  the  brilliant, 
restless  Norseman,  with  no  plan  of  establish- 
ing a  racial  dominion,  but  simply  in  the  tem- 
porary enjoyment  of  his  own  warlike  and  rob- 
ber instincts,  engrafting  himself  upon  a  less 
gifted  people,  and  then  adopting  its  language 
and  customs,  letting  himself  be  absorbed  into 
the  nationality  he  has  helped  to  create,  and  be- 
coming a  Russian,  with  the  same  facility  as 
Rollo  and  his  sons  at  the  very  same  period 
were  becoming  Frenchmen. 


CHAPTER   IV 

RUSSIA'S    CONVERSION GREEK    AND    LATIN 

CHRISTIANITY 

So  the  scattered  clans  of  the  Slav  race  were 
roughly  drawn  together  into  something  re- 
sembling a  nation  by  the  strong  arm  of 
the  Scandinavian.  But  the  course  of  national 
progress  is  never  a  straight  one.  Nature  un- 
derstands better  than  we  the  value  of  retard- 
ing influences,  which  prevent  the  too  rapid 
fusing  of  crude  elements.  This  work  of  re- 
tardation was  performed  for  Russia  by  Svia- 
toslaf.  When,  instead  of  leaving  his  domin- 
ions to  his  oldest  son,  he  divided  them  among 
the  three,  he  introduced  a  vicious  system 
which  was  to  become  a  fatal  source  of  weak- 
ness. This  is  known  as  the  system  of  Appa- 
nages. To  his  son  Yaropolk  he  gave  Kief,  to 
Oleg  the  territory  of  the  Drevlians,  and  to 
Vladimir  Novgorod.  But  as  Vladimir  quickly 
assassinated  Yaropolk,  who  had  already  assas- 
sinated Oleg,  the  injurious  results  of  the 
system  were  not  directly  felt! 

Vladimir  became  the  sole  ruler.  He  then 
26 


A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.  2f 

started  upon  a  course  of  unbridled  profli- 
gacy. He  compelled  the  widow  of  his  mur- 
dered brother  to  marry  him — then  a  beautiful 
Greek  nun  who  had  been  captured  from 
Byzantium — then  a  Bulgarian  and  a  Bohemian 
wife,  until  finally  his  household  was  num- 
bered by  hundreds.  But  this  sensual  bar- 
barian began  to  be  conscious  of  a  soul.  He 
was  troubled,  and  revived  the  worship  of  the 
Slav  gods;  erected  on  the  cliffs  near  Kief  a 
new  idol  of  Perun,  with  head  of  silver  and 
beard  of  gold.  Two  Scandinavian  Christians 
were  by  his  orders  stabbed  at  the  feet  of  the 
idol.  Still  his  soul  was  unsatisfied.  He  de- 
termined upon  a  search  for  the  best  religion; 
sent  ambassadors  to  examine  into  the  re- 
ligious beliefs  of  Mussulmans,  Jews,  Catho- 
lics, and  the  Greeks.  The  splendor  of  the 
Greek  ceremonial,  the  magnificence  of  the 
vestments,  the  incense,  the  music,  and  the 
presence  of  the  Emperor  and  his  court,  filled 
the  souls  of  the  barbarians  with  awe — and  the 
final  argument  of  his  boyars  (or  nobles)  put 
an  end  to  doubts:  "  If  the  Greek  religion  had 
not  been  the  best,  your  grandmother  Olga, 
the  wisest  of  mortals,  would  not  have  adopted 
it." 


28  A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 

Vladimir's  choice  was  made.  He  would  be 
baptized  in  the  faith  of  Olga.  But  this  must 
be  done  at  the  hand  of  the  Greek  Patriarch;  so 
he  would  conquer  baptism — and  ravish  it  like 
booty — not  beg  for  it.  He  besieged  and  took 
a  Greek  city.  Then  demanded  the  hand  of 
Anna,  sister  of  the  Greek  Caesar,  threatening 
in  case  of  refusal  to  march  on  Constantinople. 
Consent  was  given  upon  condition  of  baptism, 
which  was  just  what  the  barbarian  wanted. 
So  he  came  back  to  Kief  a  Christian,  bring- 
ing with  him  his  new  Greek  wife,  and  his  new 
baptismal  name  of  Basil. 

Amid  the  tears  and  fright  of  the  people,  the 
idols  were  torn  down;  Perun  was  flogged  and 
thrown  into  the  Dnieper.  Then  the  old  pa- 
gan stream  was  consecrated,  and  men,  women, 
and  children,  old  and  young,  master  and  slave, 
were  driven  into  the  river,  the  Greek  priests 
standing  on  the  banks  reading  the  baptismal 
service.  The  frightened  Novgorodians  were 
in  like  manner  forced  to  hurl  Perun  into  the 
Volkhof,  and  then,  like  herded  cattle,  were 
driven  into  the  stream  to  be  baptized.  The 
work  of  Olga  was  completed — Russia  was 
Christianized  (992) ! 

It  would  be  long  before  Christianity  would 


A    SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.  29 

penetrate  into  the  heart  of  the  people.  As 
late  as  the  twelfth  century  only  the  higher 
classes  faithfully  observed  the  Christian  rites; 
while  the  old  pagan  ceremonies  were  still  com- 
mon among  the  peasantry.  And  even  now 
the  Saints  of  the  Calendar  are  in  some  places 
only  thinly  disguised  heathen  deities  and  pa- 
gan rites  and  superstitions  mingle  with  Chris- 
tian observances. 

The  conversion  of  Vladimir  seems  to  have 
been  sincere.  From  being  a  cruel  voluptuary 
and  assassin,  he  was  changed  to  a  merciful 
ruler  who  could  not  bear  to  inflict  capital  pun- 
ishment. He  was  faithful  to  his  Greek  wife 
Anna.  On  the  spot  where  he  had  once 
erected  Perun,  and  where  the  two  Scandina- 
vians were  martyred  at  his  command,  he  built 
the  church  of  St.  Basil;  and  he  is  now  re- 
membered only  as  the  saint  who  Christianized 
pagan  Russia,  and  revered  as  the  "  Beautiful 
Sun  of  Kief." 

So  the  two  most  important  events  consid- 
ered thus  far  in  the  history  of  this  land  have 
been,  first,  its  military  conquest  from  the 
North,  and  second,  its  ecclesiastical  conquest 
from  the  South.  If  the  first  helped  it  to  be- 
come a  nation,  the  second  determined  the 


30  A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 

character  which  that  nationality  should  as- 
sume. 

To  explain  one  fact  by  another  and  unfa- 
miliar and  uncomprehended  fact  is  one  of  the 
confusing  methods  of  history!  In  order  to 
know  why  the  adoption  of  the  form  of  re- 
ligion known  as  the  Greek  Church  so  power- 
fully influenced  Russian  development,  one 
must  understand  what  that  faith  was  and  is, 
and  the  source  of  the  antagonisms  which  di- 
vided the  two  great  branches  of  the  Church 
of  Christ — the  Greek  and  the  Latin. 

The  cause  underlying  all  others  is  racial. 
It  is  explained  in  their  names.  The  theology 
of  one  had  its  roots  in  Greek  Philosophy;  that 
of  the  other  in  Roman  Law.  One  tended  to 
a  brilliant  diversity,  the  other  to  centralization 
and  unity.  One  was  a  group  of  Ecclesiastical 
States,  a  Hierarchy  and  a  Polyarchy,  governed 
by  Patriarchs,  each  supreme  in  his  own  dio- 
cese; the  other  was  a  Monarchy,  arbitrarily 
and  diplomatically  governed  from  one  center. 
It  was  the  difference  between  an  archipelago 
and  a  continent,  and  not  unlike  the  difference 
between  ancient  Greece  and  Rome.  One 
had  the  tremendous  principle  of  growth,  sta- 
bility, and  permanence;  the  other  had  not. 


A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.  31 

Such  were  the  race  tendencies  which  led 
to  entirely  different  ecclesiastical  systems. 
Then  there  arose  differences  in  dogma;  and 
Rome  considered  the  Church  in  the  East 
schismatic,  and  Byzantium  held  that  that 
of  the  West  was  heterodox.  They  now  not 
only  disapproved  of  each  other's  methods,  but 
what  was  more  serious,  held  different  creeds. 
The  Latin  Church,  after  its  Bishop  had  be- 
come an  infallible  Pope  (about  the  middle  of 
the  fifth  century),  claimed  that  the  Church  in 
the  East  must  accept  his  definition  of  dogma 
as  final. 

It  was  one  small  word  which  finally  rent 
these  two  bodies  of  Christendom  forever 
apart.  It  was  only  the  word  filioque  which 
made  the  impassable  gulf  dividing  them. 
The  Latins  maintained  that  the  Holy  Spirit 
proceeded  from  the  Father — and  tlie  son;  the 
Greeks  that  it  descended  from  the  Father 
alone.  It  was  the  undying  controversy  con- 
cerning the  relations  and  the  attributes  of  the 
three  Members  of  the  Trinity;  and  the  insolu- 
ble question  was  destined  to  break  up  Greek 
and  Catholic  Church  alike  into  numberless 
sects  and  shades  of  belief  or  unbelief;  and  over 
this  Christological  controversy,  rivers  of  blood 


32  A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 

were  to  flow  in  both  branches  of  Christen- 
dom. 

The  theological  question  involved  was  of 
course  too  subtle  for  ordinary  comprehen- 
sion. But  although  men  on  both  sides  stood 
ready  to  die  for  the  decisions  of  their  councils 
which  they  did  not  understand,  there  was  un- 
derlying the  whole  question  the  political  jeal- 
ousy existing  between  the  two:  Byzantium, 
embittered  by  the  effacement  of  its  political 
jurisdiction  in  the  West,  exasperated  at  the 
overweening  pretensions  of  Roman  bishops; 
Rome,  watching  for  opportunity  to  cajole  or 
compel  the  Eastern  Church  to  submit  to  her 
authority  and  headship. 

Such  was  the  condition  of  things  when  Rus- 
sia allied  herself  in  that  most  vital  way  with 
the  empire  in  the  East.  It  is  impossible  to 
measure  the  importance  of  the  step,  or  to 
imagine  what  would  have  been  the  history  of 
that  country  had  Vladimir  decided  to  accept 
the  religion  of  Rome  and  become  Catholic,  as 
the  Slav  in  Poland  had  already  done.  By 
his  choice  not  only  is  it  possible  that  he  added 
some  centuries  to  the  life  of  the  Greek  Em- 
pire itself,  but  he  determined  the  type  of  Rus- 
sian civilization.  When  she  allied  herself 


A   SHORT  HISTORY  OP  RUSSIA.  33 

with  Byzantium  instead  of  Rome,  Russia  sepa- 
rated herself  from  those  European  currents 
from  which  she  was  already  by  natural  and  in- 
herited conditions  isolated.  She  thus  pro- 
longed and  emphasized  the  Orientalism  which 
so  largely  shaped  her  destiny,  and  produced 
a  nationality  absolutely  unique  in  the  family 
of  European  nations,  in  that  there  is  but  one 
single  root  in  Russia  which  can  be  traced 
back  to  the  Roman  Empire',  and  whereas 
most  of  the  European  civilizations  are  built 
upon  a  Roman  foundation,  there  is  only  one 
current  in  the  life  of  that  nation  to-day  which 
has  flowed  from  a  Latin  source:  that  is  a  judi- 
cial code  which  was  founded  (in  part)  upon 
Roman  law  as  embodied  by  Justinian,  Empe- 
ror of  the  Empire  in  the  East  (527-565). 


CHAPTER  M 

PRINCIPALITIES — EXPANSION    NORTHWARD 

WHEN  Vladimir  died,  in  1015,  the  partition 
of  his  dominions  among  numerous  heirs  in- 
augurated the  destructive  system  of  Appanages. 
The  country  was  converted  into  a  group  of 
principalities  ruled  by  Princes  of  the  same 
blood,  of  which  the  Principality  of  Kief  was 
chief,  and  its  ruler  Grand  Prince.  Kief,  the 
"  Mother  of  Cities,"  was  the  heart  of  Rus- 
sia, and  its  Prince,  the  oldest  of  the  descend- 
ants of  Rurik,  had  a  recognized  supremacy 
over  the  others;  who  must,  however,  also  be- 
long to  this  royal  line.  No  prince  could  rule 
anywhere  who  was  not  a  descendant  of  Rurik ; 
Kief,  the  greatest  prize  of  all,  going  to  the 
oldest;  and  when  a  Grand  Prince  died,  his  son 
was  not  his  rightful  heir,  but  his  uncle,  or 
brother,  or  cousin,  or  whoever  among  the 
Princes  had  the  right  by  seniority.  This  was 
a  survival  of  the  patriarchal  system  of  the 
Slavs,  showing  how  the  Norse  rulers  had 
adapted  themselves  to  the  native  customs  as 
before  stated. 


A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.  35 

So  while  in  thus  breaking  up  the  land  into 
small  jealous  and  rival  states  independent  of 
each  other — with  only  a  nominal  headship  at 
Kief — while  in  this  there  was  a  movement  to- 
ward chaos,  there  were  after  all  some  bonds  of 
unity  which  could  not  be  severed:  A  unity 
of  race  and  language;  a  unity  of  historical  de- 
velopment; a  unity  in  religion;  and  the  politi- 
cal unity  created  by  the  fact  that  all  the 
thrones  were  filled  by  members  of  the  same 
family,  any  one  of  whom  might  become  Grand 
Prince  if  enough  of  the  intervening  members 
could — by  natural  or  other  means — be  dis- 
posed of.  This  was  a  standing  invitation  for 
assassination  and  anarchy,  and  one  which  was 
not  neglected. 

Immediately  upon  the  death  of  Vladimir 
there  commenced  a  carnival  of  fraternal  mur- 
ders, which  ended  by  leaving  Yaroslaf  to 
whom  had  been  assigned  the  Principality  of 
Novgorod,  upon  the  throne  at  Kief. 

The  "  Mother  of  Russian  Cities  "  began  to 
show  the  effect  of  Greek  influences.  The 
Greek  clergy  had  brought  something  besides 
Oriental  Christianity  into  the  land  of  barbari- 
ans. They  brought  a  desire  for  better  living. 
Learning  began  to  be  prized;  schools  were 


36  A  SHORT  HISTORY  OP  RUSSIA. 

created.  Music  and  architecture,  hitherto  ab- 
solutely unknown,  were  introduced.  Kief 
grew  splendid,  and  with  its  four  hundred 
churches  and  its  gilded  cupolas  lighted  by  the 
sun,  was  striving  to  be  like  Constantinople. 
Not  alone  the  Sacred  Books  of  Byzantine  lit- 
erature, but  works  upon  philosophy  and  sci- 
ence, and  even  romance,  were  translated  into 
the  Slavonic  language.  Russia  was  no  longer 
the  simple,  untutored  barbarian,  guided  by 
unbridled  impulses.  She  was  taking  her  first 
lesson  in  civilization.  She  was  beginning  to 
be  wise;  learning  new  accomplishments,  and, 
alas! — to  be  systematically  and  judicially 
cruel! 

Nothing  could  have  been  more  repugnant 
or  foreign  to  the  free  Slav  barbarian  than  the 
penal  code  which  was  modeled  by  Yaroslaf 
upon  the  one  at  Byzantium.  Corporal  pun- 
ishment was  unknown  to  the  Slav,  and  was 
abhorrent  to  his  instincts.  This  seems  a 
strange  statement  to  make  regarding  the  land 
of  the  knout!  But  it  is  true.  And  imprison- 
ment, convict  labor,  flogging,  torture,  mutila- 
tion, and  even  the  death  penalty,  came  into 
this  land  by  the  way  of  Constantinople. 

At  the  same  time  there  mingled  with  this 


A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.  37 

another  stream  from  Scandinavia,  another 
judicial  code  which  sanctioned  private  re- 
venge, the  pursuit  of  an  assassin  by  all  the 
relatives  of  the  dead;  also  the  ordeal  by  red- 
hot  iron  and  boiling  water.  But  to  the  native 
Slav  race,  corporal  punishment,  with  its  hu- 
miliations and  its  refinements  of  cruelty,  was 
unknown  until  brought  to  it  by  stronger  and 
wiser  people  from  afar. 

When  we  say  that  Russia  was  putting  on  a 
garment  of  civilization,  let  no  one  suppose  we 
mean  the  people  of  Russia.  It  was  the  Princes, 
and  their  military  and  civil  households;  it  was 
official  Russia  that  was  doing  this.  The  peo- 
ple were  still  sowing  and  reaping,  and  sharing 
the  fruit  of  their  toil  in  common,  unconscious 
as  the  cattle  in  their  fields  that  a  revolution 
was  taking  place,  ready  to  be  driven  hither 
and  thither,  coerced  by  a  power  which  they 
did  not  comprehend,  their  horizon  bounded 
by  the  needs  of  the  day  and  hour. 

The  elements  constituting  Russian  society 
were  the  same  in  all  the  principalities.  There 
was  first  the  Prince.  Then  his  official  family, 
a  band  of  warriors  called  the  Drujina.  This 
Drujina  was  the  germ  of  the  future  state.  Its 
members  were  the  faithful  servants  of  the 


38  A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 

Prince,  his  guard  and  his  counselors.  He 
could  constitute  them  a  court  of  justice,  or 
could  make  them  governors  of  fortresses 
(posadniki)  or  lieutenants  in  the  larger  towns. 
The  Prince  and  his  Drujina  were  like  a  fam- 
ily of  soldiers,  bound  together  by  a  close  tie. 
The  body  was  divided  into  three  orders  of 
rank:  first,  the  simple  guards;  second,  those 
corresponding  to  the  French  barons;  and, 
third,  the  Boyars,  the  most  illustrious  of  all, 
second  only  to  the  Prince.  The  Drujina  was 
therefore  the  germ  of  aristocratic  Russia,  next 
below  it  coming  the  great  body  of  the  people, 
the  citizens  and  traders,  then  the  peasant,  and 
last  of  all  the  slave. 

Yaroslaf,  the  "  legislator,"  known  as  the 
Charlemagne  of  Russia,  died  in  the  year  1054. 
The  Eastern  and  Western  Empires,  long  di- 
vided in  sentiment,  were  that  same  year  sepa- 
rated in  fact,  when  Pope  Leo  VI.  excom- 
municated the  whole  body  of  the  Church  in 
the  East. 

With  the  death  of  Yaroslaf  the  first  and 
heroic  period  in  Russia  closes.  Sagas  and 
legendary  poems  have  preserved  for  us  its 
grim  outlines  and  its  heroes,  of  whom  Vladi- 
mir, the  "  Beautiful  Sun  of  Kief,"  is  chief. 


A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.  39 

Thus  far  there  has  been  a  unity  in  the  thread 
of  Russian  history — but  now  came  chaos. 
Who  can  relate  the  story  of  two  centuries  in 
which  there  have  been  83  civil  wars — 18  for- 
eign campaigns  against  one  country  alone,  not 
to  speak  of  the  others — 46  barbaric  invasions, 
and  in  which  293  Princes  are  said  to  have 
disputed  the  throne  of  Kief  and  other  do- 
mains! We  repeat:  Who  could  tell  this  story 
of  chaos;  and  who,  after  it  is  told,  would  read 
it? 

It  was  a  vast  upheaval,  a  process  in  which 
the  eternal  purposes  were  "  writ  large  " — 
too  large  to  be  read  at  the  time.  It  was 
not  intended  that  only  the  fertile  Black  Lands 
along  the  Dnieper,  near  to  the  civilizing  cen- 
ter at  Constantinople,  should  absorb  the  life 
currents.  All  of  Russia  was  to  be  vitalized; 
the  bleak  North  as  well  as  the  South;  the  zone 
of  the  forests  as  well  as  the  fertile  steppes. 
The  instruments  appointed  to  accomplish  this 
great  work  were — the  disorder  consequent 
upon  the  reapportionment  of  the  territory  at 
the  death  of  each  sovereign — the  fierce  rival- 
ries of  ambitious  Princes — and  the  barbaric 
encroachments  to  which  the  prevailing  an- 
archy made  the  South  the  prey. 


40  A  SHORT  HISTORY  OP  RUSSIA. 

By  the  twelfth  century  the  civil  war  had  be- 
come distinctly  a  war  between  a  new  Russia 
of  the  forests  and  the  old  Russia  of  the  fertile 
steppes.  The  cause  of  the  North  had  a  pow- 
erful leader  in  Andrew  Bogoliubski.  Andrew 
was  the  grandson  of  Monomakh  and  the  son 
of  Yuri  (or  George)  Dolgoruki — both  of 
whom  were  Grand  Princes  of  extraordinary 
abilities  and  commanding  qualities.  In  1169 
Andrew,  who  was  then  Prince  of  Suzdal,  came 
with  an  immense  army  of  followers;  he 
marched  against  Kief.  The  "  Mother  of  Rus- 
sian Cities  "  was  taken  by  assault,  sacked  and 
pillaged,  and  the  Grand  Principality  ceased  to 
exist.  Russia  was  preparing  to  revolve 
around  a  new  center  in  the  Northeast;  and 
with  the  new  Grand  Principality  of  Suzdal, 
far  removed  from  Byzantine  and  Western 
civilizations,  it  looked  like  a  return  toward  bar- 
barism, but  was  in  fact  the  circuitous  road  to 
progress.  The  life  of  the  nation  needed  to  be 
drawn  to  its  extremities,  and  the  ambitious 
Andrew,  who  assumed  the  title  and  au- 
thority of  Grand  Prince,  had  established  a  line 
which  was  destined  to  lead  to  the  Czars  of  fu- 
ture Russia. 


CHAPTER   VI 

GERMAN    INVASION MONGOL    INVASION 

THE  Principality  of  Novgorod  had  from  a 
remote  antiquity  been  the  political  center  of 
Northern,  as  was  Kief  of  Southern  Russia,  It 
was  the  Novgorodians  who  invited  the  Norse 
Princes  to  come  and  rule  the  land;  and  it  was 
the  Novgorodians  who  were  their  least  sub- 
missive subjects.  When  one  of  the  Grand 
Princes  proposed  to  send  his  son,  whom  they 
did  not  want,  to  be  their  Prince,  they  replied: 
"  Send  him  here  if  he  has  a  spare  head."  It 
was  a  fearless,  proud  republic,  as  patriotic  and 
as  quarrelsome  as  Florence,  which  it  some- 
what resembled.  Their  Prince  was  in  reality 
a  figurehead.  He  was  considered  essential  to 
the  dignity  of  the  state,  but  his  fortunes  were 
in  the  hands  of  two  political  parties,  of  which 
he  represented  the  party  in  the  ascendant. 
Novgorod  was  a  commercial  city — its  life  was 
in  its  trade  with  the  Orient  and  the  Greek 
Empire,  and  like  the  Italian  cities,  its  politics 
were  swayed  by  economic  interests.  Those 

41 


4»  A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 

in  trade  with  the  East  through  the  Volga  de- 
sired a  Prince  from  one  of  the  great  families 
about  that  Oriental  artery  in  the  Southeast; 
while  those  whose  fortunes  depended  upon 
the  Greeks  preferred  one  from  Kief  or  the 
principalities  on  the  Dnieper.  When  one 
party  fell,  the  Prince  fell  with  it,  and  as  the 
formula  expressed  it,  they  then  "  made  him  a 
reverence,  and  showed  him  the  way  out  of 
Novgorod  " — or  else  held  him  captive  until 
his  successor  arrived. 

Princes  might  come,  and  Princes  might  go, 
but  an  irrepressible  spirit  of  freedom  "  went 
on  forever";  the  reigns  all  too  short  and 
troubled  to  disturb  the  ancient  liberties  and 
customs  of  the  republic.  No  Grand  Prince 
was  ever  powerful  enough  to  impose  upon 
them  a  Prince  they  did  not  want,  and  no 
Prince  strong  enough  to  oppose  the  will  of 
the  people;  every  act  of  his  requiring  the  sanc- 
tion of  their  posadnik,  a  high  official — and 
every  decision  subject  to  reversal  by  the 
Vetche,  the  popular  assembly.  The  Vetche 
was,  in  fact,  the  real  sovereign  of  the  proud 
republic  which  styled  itself,  "  My  Lord  Nov- 
gorod the  Great."  Such  was  the  remarkable 
state  which  played  an  important,  and  certainly 


A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.  43 

the  most  picturesque,  part  in  the  history  of 
Russia. 

The  first  thought  of  the  new  Grand  Prince 
at  Suzdal  was  to  prevent  the  possible  rivalry 
of  this  arrogant  principality  in  the  North,  by 
conquering  it  and  breaking  its  spirit.  He 
was  also  resolved  to  break  thoroughly  with 
the  past,  to  destroy  the  system  of  Appanages, 
and  had  conceived  the  idea  of  the  modern  un- 
divided state.  He  removed  his  capital  from 
the  old  town  of  Suzdal,  which  had  its  Vetche 
or  popular  assembly,  to  Vladimir,  which  had 
had  none  of  these  things,  assigning  as  his  rea- 
son, not  that  he  intended  to  be  sole  master 
and  free  from  all  ancient  trammels — but  that 
the  Mother  of  God  had  come  to  him  in  a 
dream  and  commanded  him  so  to  do!  But 
an  end  came  to  all  his  dreams  and  ambitions. 
He  was  assassinated  in  1174  by  his  own  bo- 
yars,  who  were  exasperated  by  his  subversive 
policy  and  suspicions  of  his  daring  reforms. 

With  the  setting  of  the  currents  of  Russian 
national  life  toward  the  North,  there  was 
awakened  in  Europe  a  vague  sense  of  danger. 
Not  far  from  Novgorod,  on  and  about  the 
shores  of  the  Baltic,  were  various  tributary 
Slav  tribes,  mingled  with  pagan  Finns.  This 


44  A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 

was  the  only  point  of  actual  contact,  the  only 
point  without  natural  protection  between 
Russia  and  Europe,  and  it  must  be  guarded. 
German  merchants,  hand  in  hand  with  Latin 
missionaries,  invaded  a  strip  of  disputed  ter- 
ritory, and,  under  the  cloak  of  Christianity, 
commenced  a — conquest.  A  Latin  Church  be- 
came also  a  fortress ;  and  the  fortress  soon  ex- 
panded into  a  German  town,  and  these  crept 
every  year  farther  and  farther  into  the  East. 
In  order  to  quell  the  resistance  of  native  Finns 
and  Slavs,  there  was  created,  and  authorized 
by  the  Pope,  an  order  of  knighthood,  called 
the  "  Sword-Bearers,"  with  the  double  pur- 
pose of  driving  back  the  Slavonic  tide  which 
threatened  Germany  and  at  the  same  time 
Christianizing  it.  These  were  the  "  Livonian 
Knights,"  who  came  from  Saxony  and  West- 
phalia, armed  cap-a-pie,  with  red  crosses  em- 
broidered upon  the  shoulder  of  their  white 
mantles.  Then  another  order  was  created 
(1225),  the  "  Teutonic  Order,"  wearing  black 
crosses  on  their  shoulders,  which,  after  frater- 
nizing with  the  Livonian  Knights,  was  going 
to  absorb  them — together  with  some  other 
things — into  their  own  more  powerful  organi- 
zation. Russia  had  no  armed  warriors  to 


A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.  45 

meet  these  steel-clad  Germans  and  Livonians. 
She  had  no  orders  of  chivalry,  had  taken  no 
part  in  the  Crusades,  the  far-off  echoes  of 
which  had  fallen  upon  unheeding  ears.  The 
Russians  could  defend  with  desperate  courage 
their  own  flimsy  fortifications  of  wood,  earth, 
and  loose  stones;  but  they  could  not  pull  down 
with  ropes  the  solid  German  fortresses  of 
stone  and  cement,  and  their  spears  were  in- 
effectual upon  the  shining  armor.  Their  con- 
quest was  inevitable;  the  conquered  territory 
being  divided  between  the  knights  and  the 
Latin  Church.  So  Konigsberg  and  many 
other  Russian  towns  were  captured  and  then 
Teutonized,  by  joining  them  to  the  cities  of 
Lubeck,  Bremen,  Hamburg,  etc.,  in  the 
"  Hanseatic  League." 

This  conquest  was  of  less  future  importance 
to  Russia  than  to  Western  Europe.  It  con- 
tained the  germ  of  much  history.  The  terri- 
tory thus  wrested  from  Russia  became  the 
German  state  of  Prussia;  and  a  future  master 
of  the  Teutonic  order,  a  Hohenzollern,  was  in 
later  years  its  first  King;  and  this  was  the  be- 
ginning of  the  great  German  Empire  which 
confronts  the  Empire  of  the  Czar  to-day. 

So  the  conquest  by  the  German  Orders  was 


46  A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 

added  to  the  other  woes  by  which  Russia  was 
rent  and  torn  after  the  death  of  her  Grand 
Prince  at  Suzdal.  To  us  it  all  seems  like  an 
unmeaning  panorama  of  chaos  and  disorder. 
But  to  them  it  was  only  the  vicissitudes  natu- 
rally occurring  in  the  life  of  a  great  nation. 
They  were  proud  of  their  nationality,  which 
had  existed  nearly  as  long  as  from  Columbus 
to  our  own  day.  They  gloried  in  their  splen- 
did background  of  great  deeds  and  their  long 
line  of  heroes  reaching  back  to  Rurik.  Their 
Princes  were  proud  and  powerful — their  fol- 
lowers (the  Drujiniki) — noble  and  fearless — 
who  could  stand  before  them?  They  would 
have  exchanged  their  glories  for  those  of  no 
nation  upon  the  earth,  except  perhaps  that 
waning  empire  of  the  Caesars  at  Constanti- 
nople ! 

Such  was  the  sentiment  of  Russian  nation- 
ality at  the  time  when  its  overwhelming 
humiliation  suddenly  came,  a  degrading  sub- 
jection to  Asiatic  Mongols,  which  lasted  250 
years. 

In  the  year  1224  there  appeared  in  the 
Southeast  a  strange  host  who  claimed  the 
land  of  the  Polovtsui,  a  Tatar  clan  which  had 
been  for  centuries  encamped  about  the  Sea  of 


A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.  47 

Azof.  The  Russian  chronicler  naively  says: 
"  There  came  upon  us  for  our  sins  unknown 
nations.  God  alone  knew  who  they  were,  or 
where  they  came  from — God,  and  perhaps 
wise  men,  learned  in  books  " — which  it  is  evi- 
dent the  chronicler  was  not!  The  invaders 
were  Mongols — that  branch  of  the  human 
family  from  which  had  come  the  Tatars  and 
the  Huns,  already  familiar  to  Russia,  But 
these  Mongols  were  the  vanguard  of  a  vast 
army  which  had  streamed  like  a  torrent 
through  the  heart  of  Asia,  conquering  as  it 
came;  gathering  one  after  another  the  Asiatic 
kingdoms  into  an  empire  ruled  by  Genghis 
Khan,  a  sovereign  who  in  forty  years  had 
made  himself  master  of  China  and  the  greater 
part  of  Asia — saying:  "  As  there  is  only  one 
Sun  in  Heaven,  so  there  should  be  only  one 
Emperor  on  the  Earth  ";  and  when  he  died, 
in  1227,  he  left  the  largest  empire  that  had 
ever  existed,  and  one  which  he  was  preparing 
to  extend  into  Western  Europe. 

It  was  the  court  of  this  great  sovereign 
which,  in  1275,  was  visited  by  the  Venetian 
traveler  Marco  Polo.  This  was  the  far-off 
Cathay,  descriptions  of  which  fired  the  im- 
agination of  Europe,  and  awoke  a  consuming 


48  A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 

desire  to  get  access  to  its  fabulous  riches,  and 
which  two  centuries  later  filled  the  mind  of 
Columbus  with  dreams  of  reaching  that  land 
of  wonders  by  way  of  the  West. 

The  Polovtsui  appealed  to  the  nearest  prin- 
cipalities for  help,  offering  to  adopt  their  re- 
ligion and  to  become  their  subjects,  in  .return 
for  aid.  When  several  Princes  came  with 
their  armies  to  the  rescue,  the  Mongols  sent 
messengers  saying:  "We  have  no  quarrel  with 
you;  we  have  come  to  destroy  the  accursed 
Polovtsui."  The  Princes  replied  by  promptly 
putting  the  ambassadors  all  to  death.  This 
sealed  the  fate  of  Russia.  There  could  be  no 
compromise  after  that.  Upon  that  first  bat- 
tlefield, on  the  steppes  near  the  sea  of  Azof, 
there  were  left  six  Princes,  seventy  chief  bo- 
yars,  and  all  but  one-tenth  of  the  Russian 
army. 

After  this  thunderbolt  had  fallen  an  omi- 
nous quiet  reigned  for  thirteen  years.  Noth- 
ing more  was  heard  of  the  Mongols — but  a 
comet  blazing  in  the  sky  awoke  vague  fears. 
Suddenly  an  army  of  five  hundred  thousand 
Asiatics  returned,  led  by  Batui,  nephew  of  the 
Great  Khan  of  Khans. 

It  was  the  defective  political  structure  of 


A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.  49 

Russia,  its  division  into  principalities,  which 
made  it  an  easy  prey.  The  Mongols,  mov- 
ing as  one  man,  took  one  principality  at  a 
time,  its  nobles  and  citizens  alone  bearing 
arms,  the  peasants,  by  far  the  greater  part,  be- 
ing utterly  defenseless.  After  wrecking  and 
devastating  that,  they  passed  on  to  the  next, 
which,  however  desperately  defended,  met  the 
same  fate.  The  Grand  Principality  was  a 
ruin;  its  fourteen  towns  were  burned,  and 
when,  in  the  absence  of  its  Grand  Prince,  Vla- 
dimir the  capital  city  fell,  the  Princesses  and 
all  the  families  of  the  nobles  took  refuge  in 
the  cathedral  and  perished  in  the  general  con- 
flagration (1238).  Two  years  later  Kief  also 
fell,  with  its  white  walls  and  towers  embel- 
lished by  Byzantine  art,  its  cupolas  of  gold 
and  silver.  All  was  laid  in  the  dust,  and  only 
a  few  fragments  in  museums  now  remain  to 
tell  of  its  glory.  The  annalist  describes  the 
bellowings  of  the  buffaloes,  the  cries  of  the 
camels,  the  neighing  of  the  horses,  and  howl- 
ings  of  the  Tatars  while  the  ancient  and  beau- 
tiful city  was  being  laid  low. 

Before  1240  the  work  was  complete. 
There  was  a  Mongol  empire  where  had  been 
a  Russian.  Then  the  tide  began  to  set  toward 


50  A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 

Western  Europe.  Isolated  from  the  other 
European  states  by  her  religion,  Russia  had 
suffered  alone.  No  Europe  sprang  to  her  de- 
fense as  to  the  defense  of  Spain  from  the  Sara- 
cens. Not  until  Poland  and  Hungary  were 
threatened  and  invaded  did  the  Western 
Kingdoms  give  any  sign  of  interest.  Then 
the  Pope,  in  alarm,  appealed  to  the  Christian 
states.  Frederick  II.  of  Germany  responded, 
and  Louis  IX.  of  France  (Saint-Louis)  pre- 
pared to  lead  a  crusade.  But  the  storm  had 
spent  its  fury  upon  the  Slavonic  people,  and 
was  content  to  pause  upon  those  plains  which 
to  the  Asiatic  seemed  not  unlike  his  own 
home. 


CHAPTER   VII 

UNDER    MONGOL   YOKE 

AMID  the  wreck  of  principalities  there  was 
one  state  remaining  erect.  Novgorod  was 
defended  by  its  remoteness  and  its  uninviting 
climate.  The  Mongols  had  not  thought  it 
worth  while  to  attempt  the  reduction  of  the 
warlike  state,  so  the  stalwart  Republic  stood 
alone  amid  the  general  ruin.  All  the  rest 
were  under  the  Tatar  yoke.  Of  Princes  there 
were  none.  All  had  either  been  slaughtered 
or  fled.  Proud  boyars  saw  their  wives  and 
daughters  the  slaves  of  barbarians.  Deli- 
cate women  who  had  always  lived  in  luxury 
were  grinding  corn  and  preparing  coarse  food 
for  their  terrible  masters. 

After  the  conquest  was  completed  the 
Mongol  sovereign  exacted  only  three  things 
from  the  prostrate  state — homage,  tribute, 
and  a  military  contingent  when  required. 
They  might  retain  their  land  and  their  cus- 
toms, might  worship  any  god  in  any  way; 
their  Princes  might  dispute  for  the  thrones  as 
before;  but  no  Prince — not  the  Grand  Prince 


52  A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 

himself — could  ascend  a  throne  until  he  had 
permission  from  the  Great  Khan,  to  whom 
also  every  dispute  between  royal  claimants 
must  be  deferred.  Then  when  finally  the 
messenger  came  from  the  sovereign  with  the 
yarlik,  or  royal  sanction,  the  Prince  must  lis- 
ten kneeling,  with  his  head  in  the  dust.  And 
if  then  he  was  invited  (?)  to  the  Mongol  court 
to  pay  homage,  he  must  go,  even  though  it 
required  (as  Marco  Polo  tells  us)  four  years 
to  make  the  journey  across  the  plains  and  the 
mountains  and  rivers  and  the  Great  Desert  of 
Gobi! 

When  Yaroslaf  II.,  third  Grand  Prince  of 
Suzdal,  succeeded  to  the  Principality,  he  was 
invited  to  pay  this  visit.  After  reaching  there, 
and  after  all  the  degrading  ceremonies  to 
which  he  was  subjected — kissing  the  stirrup 
of  his  Suzerain,  and  licking  up  the  drops 
which  fell  from  his  cup  as  he  drank — then  this 
Prince  of  the  family  of  Rurik  perished  from 
exhaustion  in  the  Desert  of  Gobi  on  his  return 
journey.  But  this  was  not  all.  The  yoke 
was  a  heavy  as  well  as  a  degrading  one.  Each 
Prince  with  his  Drujina  must  be  always  ready 
to  lead  an  army  in  defense  of  the  Mongol 
cause  if  required;  and,  last  of  all,  the  poll-tax 


A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.  53 

bore  with  intolerable  weight  upon  everyone, 
rich  or  poor,  excepting  only  the  ecclesiastics 
and  the  property  of  the  Greek  Church,  which 
with  a  singular  clemency  they  exempted. 

What  sort  of  a  despotism  was  it,  and  what 
sort  of  a  being,  that  could  wield  such  a  power 
from  such  a  distance!  that,  across  a  continent 
it  took  four  years  to  traverse,  could  compel 
such  obedience;  could  by  a  word  or  a  nod 
bring  proud  Princes  with  rage  and  rebellion 
in  their  hearts  to  his  court — not  to  be  hon- 
ored and  enriched,  but  degraded  and  insulted; 
then  in  shame  to  turn  back  with  their  bo- 
yars  and  retinues, — if  indeed  they  were  permit- 
ted to  go  back  at  all, — one-half  of  whom 
would  perish  from  exhaustion  by  the  way. 
What  was  the  secret  of  such  a  power?  Even 
with  all  the  modern  appliances  for  conveying 
the  will  of  a  sovereign  to-day,  with  railroads 
to  carry  his  messengers  and  telegraph  wires 
to  convey  his  will,  would  it  be  conceivable  to 
exert  such  an  authority? 

And — listen  to  the  language  of  a  proud 
Russian  Prince  at  the  Court  of  the  Great 
Khan:  "  Lord — all-powerful  Tsar,  if  I  have 
done  aught  against  you,  I  come  hither  to  re- 
ceive life  or  death.  I  am  ready  for  either. 


54  A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 

Do  with  me  as  God  inspires  you."  Or  still 
another:  "  My  Lord  and  master,  by  thy  mercy 
hold  I  my  principality — with  no  title  but  thy 
protection  and  investiture — thy  yarlik;  while 
my  uncle  claims  it  not  by  your  favor  but  by 
right!"  It  was  such  pleading  as  this  that 
succeeded;  so  it  is  easy  to  see  how  Princes  at 
last  vied  with  each  other  in  being  abject.  In 
this  particular  case  the  presumptuous  uncle 
was  ordered  to  lead  his  victorious  nephew's 
horse  by  the  bridle,  on  his  way  to  his  corona- 
tion at  Moscow.  So  the  path  to  success 
was  through  the  dust,  and  it  was  the  wily 
Princes  of  Moscow  that  most  patiently 
traveled  that  road  with  important  results  to 
Russia. 

Novgorod,  as  we  have  said,  had  alone  es- 
caped from  these  degradations.  Her  Prince 
Alexander  was  son  of  Yaroslaf,  the  Grand 
Prince  who  perished  in  the  desert  on  his  way 
home.  At  the  time  of  the  invasion  Alexan- 
der was  leading  an  army  against  the  Swedes 
and  the  Livonian  Knights  in  defense  of  his 
Baltic  provinces.  It  was  Latin  Christianity 
versus  Greek,  and  by  a  great  victory  upon  the 
banks  of  the  Neva  he  earned  undying  fame 
and  the  surname  of  Nevski.  Alexander  Nevski 


A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.  55 

is  remembered  as  the  hero  of  the  Neva  and  of 
the  North;  yet  even  he  was  finally  compelled 
to  grovel  at  the  feet  of  the  barbarians.  Novgo- 
rod alone  had  stood  erect,  had  paid  no  tribute 
and  offered  no  homage  to  the  Khan.  At  last, 
when  its  destruction  was  at  hand,  thirty-six 
years  after  the  invasion,  Nevski  had  the  hero- 
ism to  submit  to  the  inevitable.  He  advised 
a  surrender.  It  needed  a  soul  of  iron  to  brave 
the  indignation  of  the  republic.  "  He  offers 
us  servitude!  "  they  cried.  The  Posadnik  who 
conveyed  the  counsel  to  the  Vetche  was  mur- 
dered on  the  spot.  But  Alexander  persisted, 
and  he  prevailed.  His  own  son  refused  to 
share  his  father's  disgrace,  and  left  the  state. 
Again  and  again  the  people  withdrew  the 
consent  they  had  given.  Better  might  Nov- 
gorod perish!  But  finally,  when  Alexander 
Nevski  declared  that  he  would  go,  that  he 
would  leave  them  to  their  fate,  they  yielded, 
and  the  Mongols  came  into  a  silent  city,  pass- 
ing from  house  to  house  making  lists  of  the 
inhabitants  who  must  pay  tribute. 

Then  the  unhappy  Prince  went  to  prostrate 
himself  before  the  Khan  at  Sarai.  But  his 
heart  had  broken  with  his  spirit.  He  had 
saved  his  state,  but  the  task  had  been  too 


56  A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 

heavy  for  him.  He  died  from  exhaustion  on 
his  journey  home  (1260). 

On  account  of  internal  convulsions  in  the 
Great  Tatar  Empire,  now  united  by  Kublai- 
Khan,  the  fourth  in  succession  from  Genghis- 
Khan,  the  Golden-Horde  had  separated  from 
the  parent  state,  and  its  Khan  was  absolute 
ruler  of  Russia.  So  from  this  time  the  cere- 
mony of  investiture  was  performed  at  Sa/ai; 
and  the  humiliating  pilgrimages  of  the 
Princes  were  made  to  that  city. 

The  religion  of  the  Mongols  at  the  time  of 
the  invasion  was  a  paganism  founded  upon 
sorcery  and  magic;  but  they  soon  thereafter 
adopted  Islamism,  and  became  ardent  follow- 
ers of  the  Prophet  (1272).  Although  they 
never  attempted  to  Tatarize  Russia,  250  years 
of  occupation  could  not  fail  to  leave  indelible 
traces  upon  a  civilization  which  was  even 
more  than  before  Orientalized.  The  dress  of 
the  upper  classes  became  more  Eastern — the 
flowing  caftan  replaced  the  tunic,  the  blood 
of  the  races  mingled  to  some  extent;  even  the 
Princes  and  boyars  contracting  marriages 
with  Mongol  women,  so  that  in  some  of  the 
future  sovereigns  the  blood  of  the  Tatar  was 
to  be  mingled  with  that  of  Rurik. 


A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.  57 

A  weaker  nation  would  have  been  crushed 
and  disheartened  by  such  calamities  as  have 
been  described.  But  Russia  was  not  weak. 
She  had  a  tremendous  store  of  vigor  for  good 
or  for  evil.  Life  had  always  been  a  terrible 
conflict,  with  nature  and  with  man,  and  when 
there  had  been  no  other  barbarians  to  fight, 
they  had  fought  each  other.  Every  muscle 
and  every  sinew  had  always  been  in  the  high- 
est state  of  activity,  and  was  toughened  and 
strong,  with  an  inextinguishable  vitality. 
Such  nations  do  not  waste  time  in  sentimental 
regrets.  Their  wounds,  like  those  of  animals, 
heal  quickly,  and  they  are  urged  on  by  a  sort 
of  instinct  to  wear  out  the  chains  they  cannot 
break.  By  the  time  Novgorod  came  under 
the  Tatar  yoke  the  entire  state  had  adjusted 
itself  to  its  condition  of  servitude.  Its  inter- 
nal economy  was  re-established,  the  peasants, 
in  their  Mirs  or  communes,  sowed  and  reaped, 
and  the  people  bought  and  sold,  only  a  little 
more  patient  and  submissive  than  before. 
The  burden  had  grown  heavier,  but  it  must 
be  borne  and  the  tribute  paid.  The  Princes, 
with  wits  sharpened  by  conflict,  fought  as  they 
always  had,  with  uncles,  cousins,  and  brothers 
for  the  thrones;  and  then  governed  with  a  se- 


58  A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 

verity  as  nearly  as  possible  like  the  one  im- 
posed upon  themselves  by  their  own  master — 
the  Great  Khan. 

The  germ  of  future  Russia  was  there;  a 
strong,  patient,  toiling  people  firmly  held  by 
a  despotic  power  which  they  did  not  compre- 
hend, and  uncomplainingly  and  as  a  matter  of 
course  giving  nearly  one-half  of  the  fruit  of 
their  toil  for  the  privilege  of  living  in  their 
own  land!  When  her  sovereigns  had  Tatar 
blood  in  their  veins  and  Tatar  ideals  in  their 
hearts,  Russia  was  on  the  road  to  absolutism. 
All  things  were  tending  toward  a  centralized 
unity  of  an  iron  and  inexorable  type — a  type 
entirely  foreign  to  the  natural  free  instincts  of 
the  Slavonic  people  themselves. 


CHAPTER   VIII 

RUSSIA  BECOMES  MUSCOVITE 

THE  tumultuous  forces  in  Russia,  never  at 
rest,  were  preparing  to  revolve  about  a  new 
center.  Whether  this  would  be  in  the  East 
or  West  was  long  in  doubt,  and  only  decided 
after  a  prolonged  struggle.  Western  Russia 
grouped  itself  about  the  state  of  the  Lithuan- 
ians on  the  Baltic,  and  Eastern  Russia  about 
that  of  Muscovy. 

The  Lithuanians  had  never  been  Christian- 
ized; they  still  adored  Perun  and  their  pagan 
deities;  and  the  only  bond  uniting  them 
with  Russia  was  the  tribute  they  had  for 
years  reluctantly  paid.  They  were  ripe 
for  rebellion;  and  when  after  long  years 
of  conflict  with  the  Livonian  and  Teu- 
tonic Orders,  Latin  Christianity  obtained 
some  foothold  in  their  land,  they  began 
to  gravitate  toward  Catholic  Poland  in- 
stead of  Greek  Russia;  and  when  a  marriage 
was  suggested  which  should  unite  Poland  and 
Lithuania  under  their  Prince  lagello,  who 
should  reign  over  both  at  Cracow,  and  at  the 

59 


60  A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 

same  time  give  them  their  own  Grand  Prince, 
they  consented.  The  forces  instigating  this 
movement  had  their  source  at  Rome,  where 
the  Pope  was  unceasingly  striving,  through 
Germany  and  Poland,  to  carry  the  Latin  cross 
into  Russia.  Again  and  again  had  the  Greek 
Church  repulsed  the  offers  of  reconciliation 
and  union  made  by  Rome.  So,  much  was 
hoped  from  the  proselyting  of  the  German 
Orders,  and  of  Catholic  Poland,  and  from  the 
union  effected  by  the  marriage  of  the  Lithu- 
anian Prince  lagello  with  the  Polish  Queen 
Hedwig. 

The  threads  composing  this  network  of 
policies  in  the  West  were  altogether  ecclesias- 
tical, until  Lithuania  began  to  feel  strong 
enough  to  wash  off  her  Christian  baptism  and 
to  indulge  in  ambitious  designs  of  her  own: 
to  struggle  away  from  Poland,  and  to  com- 
mence an  independent  and  aggressive  move- 
ment against  Russia. 

There  was  an  immense  vigor  in  this  move- 
ment. The  power  in  the  West,  sometimes 
Catholic  and  at  heart  always  pagan,  absorbed 
first  towns  and  cities  and  then  principalities. 
It  began  to  be  a  Lithuanian  conquest,  and 
overshadowed  even  Mongol  oppression.  The 


A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.  6 1 

Mongol  wanted  tribute;  while  Lithuania 
wanted  Russia!  But  one  of  the  gravest  dan- 
gers brought  by  this  war  between  the  East 
and  the  West  was  the  standing  opportunity  it 
offered  to  conspirators.  An  army  of  disaf- 
fected uncles  and  nephews  and  brothers,  with 
their  followers,  could  always  find  a  refuge,  and 
were  always  plotting  and  intriguing  and 
negotiating  with  Lithuania  and  Poland,  ready 
even  to  compromise  their  faith,  if  only  they 
might  ruin  the  existing  powers. 

Such,  in  brief,  was  the  great  conflict  be- 
tween the  East  and  West,  during  which 
Moscow  came  into  being  as  the  supreme 
head,  the  living  center  and  germ  of  Russian 
autocracy. 

It  seems  to  have  been  the  extraordinary 
vitality  of  one  family  which  twice  changed  the 
currents  of  national  life:  first  drawing  them 
from  Kief  to  Suzdal,  then  from  Suzdal  toward 
Moscow,  and  there  establishing  a  center  of 
growth  which  has  expanded  into  Russia 
as  it  exists  to-day.  This  was  the  family  of 
Dolgoruki.  Monomakh  and  his  son  George 
Dolgoruki,  the  last  Grand  Prince  of  Kief, 
were  both  men  of  commanding  character 
and  abilities;  and  it  will  be  remembered 


62  A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 

that  it  was  Andrew  Bogoliubski,  the  son  of 
George  (or  Yuri),  who  effected  the  revolu- 
tion which  transferred  the  Grand  Principality 
from  Kief  to  Suzdal  in  the  bleak  North. 
Alexander  Nevski,  the  hero  of  the  Neva  and 
of  Novgorod,  was  the  descendant  of  this  An- 
drew (of  Suzdal),  and  it  was  the  son  of  Nevski 
who  was  the  first  Prince  of  Moscow  and  who 
there  established  a  line  of  Princes  which  has 
come  unbroken  down  to  Nicholas  II.  Con- 
trary to  all  the  traditions  of  their  state  this 
dominating  family  was  going  to  establish  a 
dynasty,  and  again  to  remove  the  national  life 
to  a  new  center,  in  a  Grand  Principality 
toward  which  all  of  Russia  was  gradually  but 
inevitably  to  gravitate  until  it  became  Musco- 
vite. 

The  city  which  was  to  exert  such  an  influ- 
ence upon  Russia  was  founded  in  1147  by 
George  (or  Yuri)  Dolgoruki,  the  last  Grand 
Prince  of  Kief.  The  story  is  that  upon  arriv- 
ing once  at  the  domain  of  a  boyar  named 
Kutchko,  he  caused  him  for  some  offense  to 
be  put  to  death;  then,  as  he  looked  out  upon 
the  river  Moskwa  from  the  height  where  now 
stands  the  Kremlin,  so  pleased  was  he  with  the 
outlook  that  he  then  and  there  planted  the 


A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.  63 

nucleus  of  a  town.  Whether  the  death  of  the 
boyar  or  the  purpose  of  appropriating  the 
domain  came  first,  is  not  stated;  but  upon  the 
soil  freshly  sprinkled  with  human  blood  arose 
Moscow. 

The  town  was  of  so  little  importance  that 
its  destruction  by  the  Tatars  in  1238  was  un- 
observed. In  1260,  when  Alexander  Nevski 
died,  Moscow,  with  a  few  villages,  was  given 
as  a  small  appanage  or  portion  to  his  son 
Daniel.  Nevski,  it  must  be  remembered,  was 
a  direct  descendant  of  Monomakh,  and  of 
George  Dolgoruki,  the  founder  of  Moscow. 
So  the  first  Prince  of  Moscow  was  of  this 
illustrious  line,  a  line  which  has  remained 
unbroken  until  the  present  time. 

When  Daniel  commenced  to  reign  over 
what  was  probably  the  most  obscure  and  in- 
significant principality  in  all  Russia,  it  was  sur- 
rounded by  old  and  powerful  states,  in 
perpetual  struggle  with  each  other.  The 
Lithuanian  conquest  was  pressing  in  from  the 
West  and  assuming  large  proportions;  while 
embracing  the  whole  agitated  surface  was  the 
odious  enslavement  to  the  Mongols  and  their 
oft-recurring  invasions  to  enforce  their  inso- 
lent demands. 


64  A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 

The  building  of  the  Russian  Empire  was  not 
a  dainty  task !  It  was  not  to  be  performed  by 
delicate  instruments  and  gentle  hands.  It 
needed  brutal  measures  and  unpitying  hearts. 
Nor  could  brute  force  and  cruelty  do  it  alone; 
it  required  the  subtler  forces  of  mind — cold, 
calculating  policies,  patience,  and  craft  of  a 
subtle  sort.  The  Princes  of  Russia  had  long 
been  observant  pupils,  first  at  Constantinople, 
and  later  at  the  feet  of  the  Khans.  They 
could  meet  cruelty  with  cruelty,  cunning  with 
cunning.  But  it  was  the  Princes  of  Moscow 
who  proved  themselves  masters  in  these  Ori- 
ental arts.  Their  cunning  was  not  of  the 
vulgar  sort  which  works  for  ends  that  are 
near;  it  was  the  cunning  which  could  wait, 
could  patiently  cringe  and  feign  loyalty  and 
devotion,  with  the  steady  purpose  of  tearing 
in  pieces.  Added  to  this,  they  had  the  intel- 
ligence to  divine  the  secret  of  power.  Certain 
ends  they  kept  steadily  in  view.  The  old  law 
of  succession  to  eldest  collateral  heir  they  set 
aside  from  the  outset;  the  principality  being 
invariably  divided  among  the  sons  of  the  de- 
ceased Prince.  Then  they  gradually  estab- 
lished the  habit  of  giving  to  the  eldest  son 
Moscow,  and  only  insignificant  portions  to  the 


A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.  65 

rest.  So  primogeniture  lay  at  the  root  of  the 
policy  of  the  new  state — and  they  had  created 
a  dynasty. 

Then  their  invariable  method  was  by  cun- 
ning arts  to  embroil  neighboring  Princes  in 
quarrels,  and  so  to  ingratiate  themselves  with 
their  master  the  Khan,  that  when  they  ap- 
peared before  him  at  Sarai — as  they  must — 
for  his  decision,  while  one  unfortunate  Prince 
(unless  perchance  he  was  beheaded  and 
did  not  come  away  at  all)  came  away  without 
his  throne,  the  faithful  Prince  of  Moscow  re- 
turned with  a  new  state  added  to  his  territory 
and  a  new  title  to  his  name!  Was  he  not 
always  ready,  not  only  to  obey  himself,  but  to 
enforce  the  obedience  of  others?  Did  he  not 
stand  ready  to  march  against  Novgorod,  or  any 
proud,  refractory  state  which  failed  in  tribute 
or  homage  to  his  master  the  Khan?  No 
gloomier,  no  darker  chapter  is  written  in  his- 
tory than  that  which  records  the  transition  of 
Russia  into  Muscovy.  It  was  rooted  in  a 
tragedy,  it  was  nourished  by  human  blood  at 
every  step  of  its  growth.  It  was  by  base  ser- 
vility to  the  Khans,  by  perfidy  to  their  peers, 
by  treachery  and  by  prudent  but  pitiless 
policy,  that  Moscow  rose  from  obscurity  to 


.1   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 

the  supreme  headship— and  the  name  of  M us- 
coz'y  was  attained. 

There  was  a  line  of  eight  Muscovite  Princes 
from  Daniel  (1260)  to  the  death  of  Vasili 
(1462),  but  they  moved  as  steadily  toward  one 
end  as  if  one  man  had  been  during  those  two 
centuries  guiding  the  policy  of  the  state.  The 
city  of  Moscow  was  made  great.  The  Krem- 
lin was  built  (1300) — not  as  we  see  it  now.  It 
required  many  centuries  to  accumulate  all  the 
treasures  within  that  sacred  inclosure  of  walls, 
crowned  by  eighteen  towers.  But  with  each 
succeeding  reign  there  arose  new  buildings, 
more  and  more  richly  adorned  by  jewels  and 
by  Byzantine  art. 

Then  the  city  became  the  ecclesiastical  center 
of  Russia,  when  the  Metropolitan,  second  only 
to  the  Great  Patriarch  at  Constantinople,  was 
induced  to  remove  to  Moscow  from  Vladimir, 
capital  of  the  Grand  Principality.  This  was  an 
important  advance;  for  in  the  train  of  the 
great  ecclesiastic  came  splendor  of  ritual,  and 
wealth  and  culture  and  art;  and  a  cathedral 
and  more  palaces  must  be  added  to  the  Krem- 
lin. In  1328  Ivan  I.,  the  Prince  of  Moscow, 
being  the  eldest  descendant  of  Rurik,  fell  heir 
by  the  old  law  of  succession  to  the  Grand 


A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.  67 

Principality.  So  now  the  Prince  of  Moscow 
was  also  Grand  Prince  of  Vladimir,  or  of  Suz- 
dal, which  was  the  same  thing;  and  as  he  con- 
tinued to  dwell  in  his  own  capital,  the  Grand 
Principality  was  ruled  from  Moscow.  The  first 
act  of  this  Grand  Prince  was  to  claim  sover- 
eignty over  Novgorod.  The  people  were  de- 
prived of  their  VetcM  and  their  posadnik,  while 
one  of  his  own  boyars  represented  his  author- 
ity and  ruled  as  their  Prince.  Then  the  com- 
pliant Khan  bestowed  upon  his  faithful  vassal 
the  triple  crown  of  Vladimir,  Moscow,  and 
Novgorod,  to  which  were  soon  to  be  added 
many  others. 

The  next  step  was  to  be  the  setting  aside  of 
the  old  Slavonic  law  of  inheritance,  and  claim- 
ing the  throne  of  the  Grand  Principality  for 
the  oldest  son  of  the  last  reigning  Grand 
Prince;  making  sure  at  the  same  time  that  this 
Prince  belonged  to  the  Muscovite  line.  This 
was  not  entirely  accomplished  until  1431, 
when  Vasili  carried  his  dispute  to  the  Horde 
for  the  Khan's  decision.  The  other  disputant, 
who  was  making  a  desperate  stand  for  his 
rights  under  the  old  system  of  seniority,  was 
the  "  presumptuous  uncle "  already  men- 
tioned, who  was,  it  will  be  remembered,  com- 


68  A  SHORT  HISTORY  OP  RUSSIA. 

manded  to  lead  by  the  bridle  the  horse  of  his 
triumphant  Muscovite  nephew.  The  sons  of 
the  disappointed  uncle,  however,  conspired 
with  success  even  after  that;  and  finally,  in  a 
rage,  Vasili  ordered  that  the  eyes  of  one  of  his 
cousins  be  put  out.  But  time  brings  its  re- 
venges. Ten  years  later  the  Grand  Prince,  on 
an  evil  day,  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  remain- 
ing cousin, — brother  of  his  victim, — and  had 
his  own  eyes  put  out.  So  he  was  thereafter 
known  as  "  Vasili  the  Blind."  This  wily 
Prince  kept  his  oldest  son  Ivan  close  to  him; 
and,  that  there  might  be  no  doubt  about  his 
succession,  so  familiarized  him  with  his  posi- 
tion and  placed  him  so  firmly  in  the  saddle  that 
it  would  not  be  easy  to  unseat  him  when  his 
own  death  occurred. 

Many  things  had  been  happening  during 
these  two  centuries  besides  the  absorption  of 
the  Russian  principalities  by  Moscow.  The 
ambitious  designs  of  Lithuania,  in  which  Po- 
land and  Hungary,  and  the  German  Knights 
and  Latin  Christianity,  were  all  involved,  had 
been  checked,  and  the  disappointed  state  of 
Lithuania  was  gravitating  toward  a  union  with 
Poland.  More  important  still,  the  Empire  of 
the  Khan  was  falling  into  pieces.  The  proc- 


A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.  69 

ess  had  been  hastened  by  a  tremendous  vic- 
tory obtained  by  the  Grand  Prince  Dmitri  in 
1378,  on  the  banks  of  the  Don.  In  the  same 
way  that  Alexander  Nevski  obtained  the 
stir-name  of  Nevski  by  the  battle  on  the  Neva, 
so  Dmitri  Donskoi  won  his  upon  the  river 
Don.  Hitherto  the  Tatars  had  been  resisted, 
but  not  attacked.  It  was  the  first  real  out- 
burst against  the  Mongol  yoke,  and  it  shook 
the  foundations  of  their  authority.  Then 
dissensions  among  themselves,  and  the  strug- 
gles of  numerous  claimants  for  the  throne  at 
Sarai  broke  the  Golden-Horde  into  five  Khan- 
ates each  claiming  supremacy. 


CHAPTER   IX 

PASSING   OF    BYZANTIUM — MONGOL   YOKE 
BROKEN 

SOMETHING  else  had  been  taking  place  dur- 
ing these  two  centuries:  something  which  in- 
volved the  future,  not  alone  of  Russia,  but  of 
all  Europe.  In  1250,  just  ten  years  before 
Daniel  established  the  line  of  Princes  in  Mos- 
cow, a  little  band  of  marauding  Turks  were 
encamped  upon  a  plain  in  Asia  Minor.  They 
were  led  by  an  adventurer  named  Etrogruhl. 
For  some  service  rendered  to  the  ruler  of  the 
land  Etrogruhl  received  a  strip  of  territory 
as  his  reward,  and  when  he  died  his  son  Oth- 
man  displayed  such  ability  in  increasing  his 
inheritance  by  absorbing  the  lands  of  other 
people  that  he  became  the  terror  of  his  neigh- 
bors. He  had  laid  the  foundation  of  the  Otto- 
man empire  and  was  the  first  of  a  line  of  thirty- 
five  sovereigns,  extending  down  to  the  present 
time.  It  is  the  descendant  of  Othman  and  of 
Etrogruhl  the  adventurer  who  sits  to-day  at 
Constantinople  blocking  the  path  to  the  East 
and  defying  Christendom.  These  Ottoman 


A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.  71 

Turks  were  going  to  accomplish  what  Russian 
Princes  from  the  time  of  Rurik  and  Oleg  had 
longed  and  failed  to  do.  They  were  going  to 
break  the  power  of  the  old  empire  in  the  East 
and  make  the  coveted  city  on  the  Bosphorus 
their  own.  In  1453,  the  successor  of  Othman 
was  in  Constantinople. 

The  Pope,  always  hoping  for  a  reconcilia- 
tion, and  always  striving  for  the  headship  of 
a  united  Christendom,  had  in  1439  made  fresh 
overtures  to  the  Greek  Church.  The  Em- 
peror at  Constantinople,  three  of  the  Patri- 
archs, and  seventeen  of  the  Metropolitans — 
including  the  one  at  Moscow — at  last  signed 
the  Act  of  Union.  But  when  the  astonished 
Russians  heard  the  prayer  for  the  Pope,  and 
saw  the  Latin  cross  upon  their  altars,  their 
indignation  knew  no  bounds.  The  Grand 
Prince  Vasili  so  overwhelmed  the  Metroppli- 
tan  with  insults  that  he  could  not  remain  in 
Moscow,  and  the  Union  was  abandoned.  Its 
wisdom  as  a  political  measure  cannot  be 
doubted.  If  the  Emperor  had  had  the  sym- 
pathy of  the  Pope,  and  the  championship  of 
Catholic  Europe,  the  Turks  might  not  have 
entered  Constantinople  in  1453.  But  they 
had  not  that  sympathy,  and  the  Turks  did 


72  A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 

enter  it ;  and  no  one  event  has  ever  left  so  last- 
ing an  impress  upon  civilization  as  the  over- 
throw of  the  old  Byzantine  Empire,  and  the 
giving  to  the  winds,  to  carry  whither  they 
would,  its  hoarded  treasures  of  ancient  ideals. 
Byzantium  had  been  the  heir  to  Greece,  and 
now  Russia  claimed  to  be  heir  to  Byzantium; 
while  the  head  of  Russia  was  Moscow,  and  the 
head  of  Moscow  was  Ivan  III.,  who  had  just 
settled  himself  firmly  on  the  seat  left  by  his 
father,  "  Vasili  the  Blind  "  (1462). 

Christendom  had  never  received  such  a 
blow.  Where  had  been  before  a  rebellious 
and  alienated  brother,  who  might  in  time  be 
reconciled,  there  was  now — and  at  the  very 
Gate  of  Europe — the  infidel  Turk,  the  bitter- 
est and  most  dangerous  foe  to  Christianity; 
bearing  the  same  hated  emblem  that  Charles 
Martel  had  driven  back  over  the  Pyrenees  (in 
732),  and  which  had  enslaved  the  Spanish 
Peninsula  for  seven  hundred  years;  but,  unlike 
the  Saracen,  bringing  barbarism  instead  of 
enlightenment  in  its  train. 

The  Pope,  in  despair  and  grief,  turned 
toward  Russia.  Its  Metropolitan  had  become 
a  Patriarch  now,  and  the  headship  of  the 
Greek  Church  had  passed  from  Constantino- 


A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.  73 

pie  to  Moscow.  A  niece  of  the  last  Greek 
Emperor,  John  Paleologus,  had  taken  refuge 
in  Rome;  and  when  the  Pope  suggested  the 
marriage  of  this  Greek  Princess  Zoe  with  Ivan 
III.,  the  proposition  was  joyfully  accepted  by 
him.  After  changing  her  name  from  Zoe  to  So- 
phia, and  making  a  triumphal  journey  through 
Russia,  this  daughter  of  the  Emperors  reached 
Moscow  and  became  the  bride  of  Ivan  III. 
Moscow  had  long  been  the  ecclesiastical  head 
of  Russia;  now  she  was  the  spiritual  head  of 
the  Church  in  the  East,  and  her  ruling  family 
was  joined  to  that  of  the  Caesars.  Russia 
had  certainly  fallen  heir  to  all  that  was  left  of 
the  wreck  of  the  Empire,  and  her  future 
sovereigns  might  trace  their  lineage  back  to 
the  Roman  Caesars! 

Moscow,  by  its  natural  position,  was  the  dis- 
tributing center  of  Russian  products.  The 
wood  from  the  North,  the  corn  from  the  fer- 
tile lands,  and  the  food  from  the  cattle  region 
all  poured  into  her  lap,  making  her  the  com- 
mercial as  well  as  the  spiritual  and  political 
center.  Now  there  flowed  to  that  favored  city 
another  enriching  stream.  Following  in  the 
train  of  Ivan's  Greek  wife,  were  scholars, 
statesmen,  diplomatists,  artists.  A  host  of 


74  A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 

Greek  emigrants  fleeing  from  the  Turks,  took 
refuge  in  Moscow,  bringing  with  them  books, 
manuscripts,  and  priceless  treasures  rescued 
from  the  ruined  Empire.  If  this  was  a  period 
of  Renaissance  for  Western  Europe,  was  it  not 
rather  a  Naissance  for  Russia?  What  must 
have  been  the  Russian  people  when  her  princes 
were  still  only  barbarians?  If  Ivan  valued 
these  things,  it  was  because  they  had  been 
worn  by  Byzantium,  and  to  him  they  symbol- 
ized power.  There  was  plenty  of  rough  work 
for  him  to  do  yet.  There  were  Novgorod  and 
her  sister-republic  Pskof  to  be  wiped  out,  and 
Sweden  and  the  Livonian  Order  on  his  bor- 
ders to  be  looked  after,  Bulgaria  and  other 
lands  to  be  absorbed,  and  last  and  most  impor- 
tant of  all,  the  Mongol  yoke  to  be  broken. 
And  while  he  was  planning  for  these  he  had 
little  time  for  Greek  manuscripts;  he  was  in- 
troducing the  knout,*  until  then  a  stranger  to 
his  Slavonic  people;  he  was  having  Princes 
and  boyars  and  even  ecclesiastics  whipped  and 
tortured  and  mutilated;  and,  it  is  said,  roasted 
alive  two  Polish  gentlemen  in  an  iron  cage,  for 
conspiracy.  We  hear  that  women  fainted  at 
his  glance,  and  boyars  trembled  while  he 
slept;  that  instead  of  "Ivan  the  Great"  he 
*  From  the  word  knot. 


A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.  7$ 

would  be  known  as  "  Ivan  the  Terrible,"  had 
not  his  grandson  Ivan  IV.  so  far  outshone 
him.  That  he  had  his  softer  moods  we  know. 
For  he  loved  his  Greek  wife,  and  shed  tears 
copiously  over  his  brother's  death,  even  while 
he  was  appropriating  all  the  territory  which 
had  belonged  to  him.  And  so  great  was  his 
grief  over  the  death  of  his  only  son,  that  he 
ordered  the  physicians  who  had  attended  him 
to  be  publicly  beheaded! 

The  art  of  healing  seems  to  have  been  a 
dangerous  calling  at  that  time.  A  learned 
German  physician,  named  Anthony,  in  whom 
Ivan  placed  much  confidence,  was  sent  by  him 
to  attend  a  Tatar  Prince  who  was  a  visitor  at 
his  court.  When  the  Prince  died  after  taking 
a  decoction  of  herbs  prepared  by  the  physi- 
cian, Ivan  gave  him  up  to  the  Tatar  relatives 
of  the  deceased,  to  do  with  him  as  -they  liked. 
They  took  him  down  to  the  river  Moskwa 
under  the  bridge,  where  they  cut  him  in  pieces 
like  a  sheep. 

Ivan  III.  was  not  a  warrior  Prince  like  his 
great  progenitors  at  Kief.  It  was  even  sus- 
pected that  he  lacked  personal  courage.  He 
rarely  led  his  armies  to  battle.  His  greatest 
triumphs  were  achieved  sitting  in  his  palace 


76  A  SHORT  HISTORY  OP  RUSSIA. 

in  the  Kremlin;  and  his  weapons  were  found 
in  a  cunning  and  far-reaching  diplomacy.  He 
swept  away  the  system  of  appanages,  and  one 
by  one  effaced  the  privileges  and  the  old  legal 
and  judicial  systems  in  those  Principalities 
which  were  not  yet  entirely  absorbed.  While 
maintaining  an  outward  respect  for  Mongol 
authority,  and  while  receiving  its  friendly 
aid  in  his  attacks  upon  Novgorod  and  Lithua- 
nia, he  was  carefully  laying  his  plans  for  open 
defiance.  He  cunningly  refrained  from  pay- 
ing tribute  and  homage  on  the  pretense  that 
he  could  not  decide  which  of  the  five  was 
lawful  Khan. 

In  1478  an  embassy  arrived  at  Moscow  to 
collect  tribute,  bringing  as  the  symbol  of  their 
authority  an  image  of  the  Khan  Akhmet. 
Ivan  tore  off  the  mask  of  friendship.  In  a  fury 
he  trampled  the  image  under  his  feet  and  (it 
is  said)  put  to  death  all  except  one  whom  he 
sent  back  with  his  message  to  the  Golden 
Horde.  The  astonished  Khan  sent  word  that 
he  would  pardon  him  if  he  would  come  to 
Sarai  and  kiss  his  stirrup. 

At  last  Ivan  consented  to  lead  his  own  army 
to  meet  that  of  the  enraged  Khan.  The  two 
armies  confronted  each  other  on  the  banks  of 


A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.  77 

the  Oka.  Then  after  a  pause  of  several 
days,  suddenly  both  were  seized  with  a 
panic  and  fled.  And  so  in  this  inglorious 
fashion  in  1480,  after  three  centuries  of 
oppression  and  insult,  Russia  slipped  from 
under  the  Mongol  yoke.  There  were  many 
Mongol  invasions  after  this.  Many  times  did 
they  unite  with  Lithuanians  and  Poles  and  the 
enemies  of  Russia;  many  times  were  they  at 
the  gates  of  Moscow,  and  twice  did  they  burn 
that  city — excepting  the  Kremlin — to  the 
ground.  But  never  again  was  there  homage 
or  tribute  paid  to  the  broken  and  demoralized 
Asiatic  power  which  long  lingered  about  the 
Crimea.  There  are  to-day  two  millions  of 
nomad  Mongols  encamped  about  the  south- 
eastern steppes  of  Russia,  still  living  in  tents, 
still  raising  and  herding  their  flocks,  little 
changed  in  dress,  habits,  and  character  since 
the  days  of  Genghis  Khan.  While  this  is  writ- 
ten a  famine  is  said  to  be  raging  among  them. 
This  is  the  last  remnant  of  the  great  Mongol 
invasion. 

In  1487  Ivan  marched  upon  Kazan.  The 
city  was  taken  after  a  siege  of  seven  weeks. 
The  Tsar  of  Kazan  was  a  prisoner  in  Moscow 
and  "  Prince  of  Bulgaria  "  was  added  to  the 
titles  of  Ivan  III. 


CHAPTER   X 

GRAND    PRINCE    BECOMES    TSAR 

VASILI,  who  succeeded  Ivan  III.  in  1505, 
continued  his  work  on  the  same  lines  of  ab- 
sorption and  consolidation  by  unmerciful 
means.  Pskof, — the  sister  republic  to  Nov- 
gorod the  Great, — which  had  guarded  its 
liberties  with  the  same  passionate  devotion, 
was  obliged  to  submit.  The  bell  which  had 
always  summoned  their  VetcM,  and  which 
symbolized  their  liberty,  was  carried  away. 
Their  lament  is  as  famous  as  that  for  the 
Moorish  city  of  Alhama,  when  taken  by 
Ferdinand  of  Aragon.  The  poetic  annalist 
says:  "  Alas!  glorious  city  of  Pskof — why  this 
weeping  and  lamentation?"  Pskof  replies: 
"  How  can  I  but  weep  and  lament?  An  eagle 
with  claws  like  a  lion  has  swooped  down  upon 
me.  He  has  captured  my  beauty,  my  riches, 
my  children.  Our  land  is  a  desert!  our  city 
ruined.  Our  brothers  have  been  carried 
away  to  a  place  where  our  fathers  never  dwelt 
— nor  our  grandfathers — nor  our  great-grand- 


A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.  79 

fathers! "  In  the  whole  tragic  story  of  Rus- 
sia nothing  is  more  pathetic  and  picturesque 
than  the  destruction  of  the  two  republics — 
Novgorod  and  Pskof. 

By  1523  the  last  state  had  yielded,  and  the 
Muscovite  absorption  was  complete.  There 
was  but  one  Russia;  and  the  head  of  the  con- 
solidated empire  called  himself  not  "  Grand 
Prince  of  all  the  Russias,"  but  Tsar.  When 
it  is  remembered  that  Tsar  is  only  the  Sla- 
vonic form  for  Casar,  it  will  be  seen  that 
the  dream  of  the  Varangian  Princes  had  been 
in  an  unexpected  way  realized.  The  Tsar 
of  Russia  was  the  successor  of  the  Caesars  in 
the  East. 

Vasili's  method  of  choosing  a  wife  was  like 
that  of  Ahasuerus.  Fifteen  hundred  of  the 
most  beautiful  maidens  of  noble  birth  were  as- 
sembled at  Moscow.  After  careful  scrutiny 
the  number  was  reduced  to  ten,  then  to  five — 
from  these  the  final  choice  was  made.  His 
wife's  relations  formed  the  court  of  Vasili,  be- 
came his  companions  and  advisers,  boyars 
vying  with  each  other  for  the  privilege  of 
waiting  upon  his  table  or  assisting  at  his  toilet. 
But  the  office  of  adviser  was  a  difficult  one. 
To  one  great  lord  who  in  his  inexperience 


8o  A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 

ventured  to  offer  counsel,  as  in  the  olden  time 
of  the  Drujina,  he  said  sharply:  "  Be  silent, 
rustic."  While  still  another,  more  indiscreet, 
who  had  ventured  to  complain  that  they  were 
not  consulted,  was  ordered  to  his  bedchamber, 
and  there  had  his  head  cut  off. 

The  court  grew  in  barbaric  and  in  Greek 
splendor.  As  the  Tsar  sat  upon  the  throne 
supported  by  mechanical  lions  which  roared  at 
intervals,  he  was  guarded  by  young  nobles  with 
high  caps  of  white  fur,  wearing  long  caftans 
of  white  satin  and  armed  with  silver  hatchets. 
Greek  scholarship  was  also  there.  A  learned 
monk  and  friend  of  Savonarola  was  translat- 
ing Greek  books  and  arranging  for  him  the 
priceless  volumes  in  his  library.  Vasili  him- 
self was  now  in  correspondence  with  Pope 
Leo  X.,  who  was  using  all  his  arts  to  induce 
him  to  make  friends  with  Catholic  Poland  and 
join  in  the  most  important  of  all  wars — a  war 
upon  Constantinople,  of  which  he,  Vasili,  the 
spiritual  and  temporal  heir  to  the  Eastern 
Empire,  was  the  natural  protector. 

All  this  was  very  splendid.  But  things 
were  moving  with  the  momentum  gained  by 
his  father,  Ivan  the  Great.  It  was  Vasili's  in- 
heritance, not  his  reign,  that  was  great.  That 


A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.  81 

inheritance  he  had  maintained  and  increased. 
He  had  humiliated  the  nobility,  had  developed 
the  movements  initiated  by  his  greater  father, 
and  had  also  shown  tastes  magnificent  enough 
for  the  heir  of  his  imperial  mother,  Sophia 
Paleologus.  But  he  is  overshadowed  in  his- 
tory by  standing  between  the  two  Ivans — 
Ivan  the  Great  and  Ivan  the  Terrible. 

Leo  X.  was  soon  too  much  occupied  with 
a  new  foe  to  think  about  designs  upon  Con- 
stantinople. A  certain  monk  was  nailing  a 
protest  upon  the  door  of  the  Church  at  Wit- 
tenburg  which  would  tax  to  the  uttermost  his 
energies.  As  from  time  to  time  travelers 
brought  back  tales  of  the  splendor  of  the  Mus- 
covite court,  Europe  was  more  than  ever 
afraid  of  such  neighbors.  What  might  these 
powerful  barbarians  not  do,  if  they  adopted 
European  methods!  More  stringent  measures 
were  enforced.  They  must  not  have  access  to 
the  implements  of  civilization,  and  Sigismund, 
King  of  Poland,  threatened  English  mer- 
chants on  the  Baltic  with  death. 

It  is  a  singular  circumstance  that  although, 
up  to  the  time  of  Ivan  the  Great,  Russia  had 
apparently  not  one  thing  in  common  with  the 
states  of  Western  Europe,  they  were  still  sub- 


82  A  SHORT  HISTORY  OP  RUSSIA. 

ject  to  the  same  great  tides  or  tendencies  and 
were  moving  simultaneously  toward  identical 
political  conditions.  An  invisible  but  com- 
pelling hand  had  been  upon  every  European 
state,  drawing  the  power  from  many  heads 
into  one.  In  Spain,  Ferdinand  and  Isabella 
had  brought  all  the  smaller  kingdoms  and  the 
Moors  under  one  united  crown.  In  France, 
Louis  XL  had  shattered  the  fabric  of  feudal- 
ism, and  by  artful  alliance  with  the  people  had 
humiliated  and  subjugated  the  proud  nobility. 
Henry  VIII.  had  established  absolutism  in 
England,  and  Maximilian  had  done  the  same 
for  Germany,  while  even  the  Italian  republics 
were  being  gathered  into  the  hands  of  larger 
sovereignties.  From  this  distance  in  time  it 
is  easy  to  see  the  prevailing  direction  in 
which  all  the  nations  were  being  irresistibly 
drawn. 

The  hour  had  struck  for  the  tide  to  flow  to- 
ward centralisation ;  and  Russia,  remote,  cut  off 
from  all  apparent  connection  with  the  West- 
ern kingdoms,  was  borne  along  upon  the  same 
tide  with  the  rest,  as  if  it  was  already  a  part 
of  the  same  organism !  There,  too,  the  power 
was  passing  from  the  many  to  one:  first  from 
many  ruling  families  to  one  family,  then  from 


A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.  83 

all  the  individual  members  of  that  family  to  a 
supreme  and  permanent  head — the  Tsar. 

There  were  many  revolutions  in  Russia 
from  the  time  when  the  Dolgorukis  turned 
the  life-currents  from  Kief  to  the  North ;  many 
centers  of  volcanic  energy  in  fearful  state  of 
activity,  and  many  times  when  ruin  threatened 
from  every  side.  But  in  the  midst  of  all  this 
there  was  one  steady  process — one  end  being 
always  aproached — a  consolidation  and  a 
centralization  of  authority  before  which  Euro- 
pean monarchies  would  pale!  The  process 
commenced  with  the  autocratic  purposes  of 
Andrew  Bogoliubski.  And  it  was  because  his 
boyars  instinctively  knew  that  the  success  of 
his  policy  meant  their  ruin  that  they  assassi- 
nated him. 

In  "  Old  Russia  "  a  close  and  fraternal  tie 
bound  the  Prince  and  his  Drujina  together. 
It  was  one  family,  of  which  he  was  the  adored 
head.  What  characterized  the  "  New  Rus- 
sia "  was  a  growing  antagonism  between  the 
Grand  Prince  and  his  lords  or  boyars.  This 
developed  into  a  life-and-death  struggle, 
similar  to  that  between  Louis  XL  and  his  no- 
bility. His  elevation  meant  their  humiliation. 
It  was  a  terrible  clash  of  forces — a  duel  in 


84  A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 

which  one  was  the  instrument  of  fate,  and  the 
other  predestined  to  destruction. 

It  was  of  less  importance  during  the  period 
between  Andrew  Bogoliubski  and  Ivan  IV. 
that  Mongols  were  exercising  degrading  tyr- 
anny and  making  desperate  reprisals  for  de- 
feat— that  Lithuania  and  Poland,  and  conspi- 
rators everywhere,  were  by  arms  and  by  di- 
plomacy and  by  treachery  trying  to  ruin  the 
state;  all  this  was  of  less  import  than  the  fact 
that  every  vestige  of  authority  was  surely 
passing  out  of  the  hands  of  the  nobility  into 
those  of  the  Tsar.  The  fight  was  a  desperate 
one.  It  became  open  and  avowed  under  Ivan 
III.,  still  more  bitter  under  his  son  Vasili  II., 
and  culminated  at  last  under  Ivan  the  Terri- 
ble, when,  like  an  infuriated  animal,  he  let 
loose  upon  them  all  the  pent-up  instincts  in 
his  blood. 


CHAPTER   XI 

IVAN  THE  TERRIBLE ACQUISITION  OF  SIBERIA 

IN  1533  Vasili  II.  died,  leaving  the  scepter 
to  Ivan  IV.,  an  infant  son  three  years  old. 
Now  the  humiliated  Princes  and  boyars  were 
to  have  their  turn.  The  mother  of  Ivan  IV., 
Helena  Glinski,  was  the  only  obstacle  in  their 
way.  She  speedily  died,  the  victim  of  poi- 
son, and  then  there  was  no  one  to  stem  the  tide 
of  princely  and  oligarchic  reaction  against 
autocracy:  and  the  many  years  of  Ivan's  min- 
ority would  give  plenty  of  time  to  re-establish 
their  lost  authority.  The  boyars  took  posses- 
sion of  the  government.  Ivan  wrote  later: 
"  My  brother  and  I  were  treated  like  the  chil- 
dren of  beggars.  We  were  half  clothed,  cold, 
and  hungry."  The  boyars  in  the  presence  of 
these  children  appropriated  the  luxuries  and 
treasures  in  the  palace  and  then  plundered  the 
people  as  well,  exacting  unmerciful  fines  and 
treating  them  like  slaves.  The  only  person 
who  loved  the  neglected  Ivan  was  his  nurse, 
and  she  was  torn  from  him;  and  for  a  courtier 

85 


86  A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 

to  pity  the  forlorn  child  was  sufficient  for  his 
downfall.  Ivan  had  a  superior  intelligence. 
He  read  much  and  was  keenly  observant  of  all 
that  was  happening.  He  saw  himself  treated 
with  insolent  contempt  in  private,  but  with  ab- 
ject servility  in  public.  He  also  observed  that 
his  signature  was  required  to  give  force  to 
everything  that  was  done,  and  so  discovered 
that  he  was  the  rightful  master,  that  the  real 
power  was  vested  only  in  him.  Suddenly,  in 
1543,  he  sternly  summoned  his  court  to  come 
into  his  presence,  and,  ordering  the  guards  to 
seize  the  chief  offender  among  his  boyars,  he 
then  and  there  had  him  torn  to  pieces  by  his 
hounds.  This  was  a  coup  d'etat  by  a  boy  of 
thirteen!  He  was  content  with  the  banish- 
ment of  many  others,  and  then  Ivan  IV. 
peacefully  commenced  his  reign.  He  seemed 
a  gentle,  indolent  youth;  very  confiding  in 
those  he  trusted;  inclined  to  be  a  voluptuary, 
loving  pleasure  and  study  and  everything  bet- 
ter than  affairs  of  state.  In  1547  he  was 
crowned  Tsar  of  Russia,  and  soon  thereafter 
married  Anastasia  of  the  house  of  Romanoff, 
whom  he  devotedly  loved.  As  was  the  cus- 
tom, he  surrounded  himself  with  his  mother's 
and  his  wife's  relations.  So  the  Glinskis  and 


A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.  87 

the  Romanoffs  were  the  envied  families  in 
control  of  the  government.  His  mother's 
family,  the  Glinskis,  were  especially  unpopu- 
lar; and  when  a  terrific  fire  destroyed  nearly 
the  whole  of  Moscow  it  was  whispered  by 
jealous  boyars  that  the  Princess  Anna  Glinski 
had  brought  this  misfortune  upon  them  by  en- 
chantments. She  had  taken  human  hearts, 
boiled  them  in  water,  and  then  sprinkled  the 
houses  where  the  fire  started!  An  enraged 
populace  burst  into  the  palace  of  the  Glinskis, 
murdering  all  they  could  find. 

Ivan,  nervous  and  impressionable,  seems  to 
have  been  profoundly  affected  by  all  this.  He 
yielded  to  the  popular  demand  and  appointed 
two  men  to  administer  the  government,  spirit- 
ual and  temporal — Adashef,  belonging  to  the 
smaller  nobility,  and  Silvester,  a  priest.  Be- 
lieving absolutely  in  their  fidelity,  he  then  con- 
cerned himself  very  little  about  affairs  of  state, 
and  engaged  in  the  completion  of  the  work 
commenced  by  Ivan  III. — a  revision  of  the 
old  code  of  laws  established  by  Yaroslaf. 
These  were  very  peaceful  and  very  happy 
years  for  Russia  and  for  himself.  But  Ivan 
was  stricken  with  a  fever,  and  while  appar- 
ently in  a  dying  condition  he  discovered  the 


88  A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 

treachery  of  his  trusted  ministers,  that  they 
were  shamefully  intriguing  with  his  Tatar  ene- 
mies. When  he  heard  their  rejoicings  that  the 
day  of  the  Glinskis  and  the  Romanoffs  was 
over,  he  realized  the  fate  awaiting  Anastasia 
and  her  infant  son  if  he  died.  He  resolved 
that  he  would  not  die. 

Banishment  seems  a  light  punishment  to 
have  inflicted.  It  was  gentle  treatment  for 
treason  at  the  court  of  Moscow.  But  the  poi- 
son of  suspicion  had  entered  his  soul,  and  was 
the  more  surely,  because  slowly,  working  a 
transformation  in  his  character.  And  when 
soon  thereafter  Anastasia  mysteriously  and 
suddenly  died,  his  whole  nature  seemed  to  be 
undergoing  a  change.  He  was  passing  from 
Ivan  the  gentle  and  confiding,  into  "  Ivan  the 
Terrible." 

Ivan  said  later,  in  his  own  vindication: 
"  When  that  dog  Adashef  betrayed  me,  was 
anyone  put  to  death?  Did  I  not  show  mercy? 
They  say  now  that  I  am  cruel  and  irascible; 
but  to  whom?  I  am  cruel  toward  those  that 
are  cruel  to  me.  The  good!  ah,  I  would  give 
them  the  robe  and  the  chain  that  I  wear!  My 
subjects  would  have  given  me  over  to  the 
Tatars,  sold  me  to  my  enemies.  Think  of 


A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.  89 

the  enormity  of  the  treason!  If  some  were 
chastised,  was  it  not  for  their  crimes,  and  are 
they  not  my  slaves — and  shall  I  not  do  what 
I  will  with  mine  own?  " 

His  grievances  were  real.  His  boyars  were 
desperate  and  determined,  and  even  with  their 
foreheads  in  the  dust  were  conspiring  against 
him.  They  were  no  less  terrible  than  he 
toward  their  inferiors.  There  never  could  be 
anything  but  anarchy  in  Russia  so  long  as  this 
aristocracy  of  cruel  slave-masters  existed. 
Ivan  (like  Louis  XI.)  was  girding  himself  for 
the  destruction  of  the  power  of  his  nobility, 
and,  as  one  conspiracy  after  another  was  re- 
vealed, faster  and  faster  flowed  the  torrent  of 
his  rage. 

In  1571  he  devoutly  asked  the  prayers  of 
the  Church  for  3470  of  his  victims,  986  of 
whom  he  mentioned  by  name;  many  of  these 
being  followed  by  the  sinister  addition: 
"With  his  wife  and  children";  "with  his 
sons";  "with  his  daughters."  A  gentle, 
kindly  Prince  had  been  converted  into  a  mon- 
ster of  cruelty,  who  is  called,  by  the  historians 
of  his  own  country,  the  Nero  of  Russia. 

He  was  a  pious  Prince,  like  all  of  the  Mus- 
covite line.  Not  one  of  his  subjects  was  more 


90  A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 

faithful  in  religious  observances  than  was  this 
"  torch  of  orthodoxy  " — who  frequently  called 
up  his  household  in  the  middle  of  the  night 
for  prayers.  Added  to  the  above  pious  peti- 
tion for  mercy  to  his  victims,  is  this  reference 
to  Novgorod :  "  Remember,  Lord,  the  souls  of 
thy  servants  to  the  number  of  1505  persons — 
Novgorodians,  whose  names,  Almighty,  thou 
knowest" 

That  Republic  had  made  its  last  break  for 
liberty.  Under  the  leadership  of  Marfa,  the 
widow  of  a  wealthy  and  powerful  noble,  it  had 
thrown  itself  in  despair  into  the  arms  of  Catho- 
lic Poland.  This  was  treason  to  the  Tsar  and 
to  the  Church,  and  its  punishment  was  awful. 
The  desperate  woman  who  had  instigated  the 
act  was  carried  in  chains  to  Moscow,  there  to 
behold  her  two  sons  with  the  rest  of  the  con- 
spirators beheaded.  The  bell  which  for  cen- 
turies had  summoned  her  citizens  to  the 
Vetche,  that  sacred  symbol  of  the  liberty  of  the 
Republic,  is  now  in  the  Museum  at  Moscow. 
If  its  tongue  should  speak,  if  its  clarion  call 
should  ring  out  once  more,  perhaps  there 
might  come  from  the  shades  a  countless  host 
of  her  martyred  dead — "  Whose  names,  Al- 
mighty, thou  knowest."  Ivan  then  pro- 


A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.  91 

ceeded  to  wreck  the  prosperity  of  the  richest 
commercial  city  in  his  empire.  Its  trade  was 
enormous  with  the  East  and  the  West.  It 
had  joined  the  Hanseatic  League,  and  its 
wealth  was  largely  due  to  the  German  mer- 
chants who  had  flocked  there.  With  singular 
lack  of  wisdom,  the  Tsar  had  confiscated  the 
property  of  these  men,  and  now  the  ruin  of 
the  city  was  complete. 

While  Germany,  and  Poland,  and  Sweden, 
— resolved  to  shut  up  Russia  in  her  barbaric 
isolation, — were  locking  the  front  door  on  the 
Baltic  and  the  Gulf,  England  had  found  a 
side  door  by  which  to  enter.  With  great  satis- 
faction Ivan  saw  English  traders  corning  in  by 
way  of  the  White  Sea,  and  he  extended  the 
rough  hand  of  his  friendship  to  Queen  Eliza- 
beth, who  made  with  him  a  commercial  treaty, 
which  was  countersigned  by  Francis  Bacon. 
Then,  as  his  friendship  warmed,  he  proposed 
that  they  should  sign  a  reciprocal  engagement 
to  furnish  each  other  with  an  asylum  in  the 
event  of  the  rebellion  of  their  subjects. 
Elizabeth  declined  the  asylum  he  kindly  of- 
fered her,  "  finding,  by  the  grace  of  God,  no 
dangers  of  the  sort  in  her  kingdom."  Then 
he  did  her  the  honor  to  offer  an  alliance  of  a 


92  A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 

different  kind.  He  proposed  that  she  should 
send  him  her  cousin  Lady  Mary  Hastings  to 
take  the  place  left  vacant  by  his  eighth  wife — 
to  become  his  Tsaritsa.  The  proposition  was 
considered,  but  when  the  English  maiden 
heard  about  his  brutalities  and  about  his 
seven  wives,  so  terrified  was  she  that  she  re- 
fused to  leave  England,  and  the  affair  had  to 
be  abandoned.  Elizabeth's  rejection  of  his 
proposals,  and  also  of  his  plan  for  an  alliance 
offensive  and  defensive  against  Poland  and 
Sweden,  so  infuriated  Ivan  that  he  confis- 
cated the  goods  of  the  English  merchants, 
and  this  friendship  was  temporarily  ruptured. 
But  amicable  relations  were  soon  restored  be- 
tween Elizabeth  and  her  barbarian  admirer. 
If  she  had  heard  of  his  awful  vengeance  in 
1571,  she  had  also  heard  of  the  massacre  of 
St.  Bartholomew  in  Paris  in  1572! 

Russia  had  now  opened  diplomatic  relations 
with  the  Western  kingdoms.  The  foreign 
ambassadors  were  received  with  great  pomp 
in  a  sumptuous  hall  hung  with  tapestries  and 
blazing  with  gold  and  silver.  The  Tsar,  with 
crown  and  scepter,  sat  upon  his  throne,  sup- 
ported by  the  roaring  lions,  and  carefully 
studied  the  new  ambassador  as  he  suavely 


A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.  P3 

asked  him  about  his  master.  A  police  inspec- 
tor from  that  moment  never  lost  sight  of  him, 
making  sure  that  he  obtained  no  interviews 
with  the  natives  nor  information  about  the 
state  of  the  country.  Although  the  Tsar  was 
reputed  to  be  learned  and  was  probably  the 
most  learned  man  in  his  nation,  and  had 
always  about  him  a  coterie  of  distinguished 
scholars,  still  there  was  no  intellectual  life  in 
Russia,  and  owing  to  the  Oriental  seclusion  of 
the  women  there  was  no  society.  The  men 
were  heavily  bearded,  and  the  ideal  of  beauty 
with  the  women,  as  they  looked  furtively  out 
from  behind  veils  and  curtains,  was  to  be  fat, 
with  red,  white,  and  black  paint  laid  on  like  a 
mask.  It  must  have  been  a  dreary  post  for 
gay  European  diplomats,  and  in  marked  con- 
trast to  gay,  witty,  gallant  Poland,  at  that 
time  thoroughly  Europeanized. 

Next  to  the  consolidation  of  the  imperial 
authority,  the  event  in  this  reign  most  affect- 
ing the  future  of  Russia  was  the  acquisition  of 
Siberia.  A  Cossack  brigand  under  sentence 
of  death  escaped  with  his  followers  into  the 
land  beyond  the  Urals,  and  conquered  a  part 
of  the  territory,  then  returned  and  offered  it 
to  Ivan  (1580)  in  exchange  for  a  pardon. 


94  A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 

The  incident  is  the  subject  of  a  bilina,  a  form 
of  historical  poem,  in  which  Yermak  says: 

'  •  I  am  the  robber  Hetman  of  the  Don. 
And  now — oh — orthodox  Tsar, 
I  bring  you  my  traitorous  head, 
And  with  it  I  bring  the  Empire  of  Siberia! 

And  the  orthodox  Tsar  will  speak — 
He  will  speak — the  terrible  Ivan, 
Ha  !  thou  art  Yermak,  the  Hetman  of  the  Don, 
I  pardon  thee  and  thy  band. 
I  pardon  thee  for  thy  trusty  service — 
And  I  give  to  the  Cossack  the  glorious  and  gentle 
Don  as  an  inheritance." 

The  two  Ivans  had  created  a  new  code  of 
laws,  and  now  there  was  an  ample  prison- 
house  for  its  transgressors!  The  penal  code 
was  frightful.  An  insolvent  debtor  was  tied 
up  half  naked  in  a  public  place  and  beaten 
three  hours  a  day  for  thirty  or  forty  days,  and 
then,  if  no  one  came  to  his  rescue,  with  his 
wife  and  his  children  he  was  sold  as  a  slave. 
But  Siberia  was  to  be  the  prison-house  of  a 
more  serious  class  of  offenders  for  whom 
this  punishment  would  be  insufficient.  It 
was  to  serve  as  a  vast  penal  colony  for  crimes 
against  the  state.  Since  the  beginning  of  the 
nineteenth  century  it  is  said  one  million  politi- 
cal exiles  have  been  sent  there,  and  they  con- 


A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.  95 

tinue  to  go  at  the  rate  of  twenty  thousand  a 
year;  showing  how  useful  a  present  was  made 
by  the  robber  Yermak  to  the  "  Orthodox 
Tsar"! 

This  reign,  like  that  of  Louis  XL  of  France, 
which  it  much  resembled,  enlarged  the  privi- 
leges of  the  people  in  order  to  aid  Ivan  in  his 
conflict  with  his  nobility.  For  this  purpose 
a  Sobor,  or  States-General,  was  summoned  by 
him,  and  met  at  long  intervals  thereafter  until 
the  time  of  Peter  the  First. 

Of  the  two  sons  left  to  Ivan  by  his  wife 
Anastasia,  only  one  now  remained.  In  a  par- 
oxysm of  rage  he  had  struck  the  Tsarevitch 
with  his  iron  staff.  He  did  not  intend  to  kill 
him,  but  the  blow  was  mortal.  Great  and 
fierce  was  the  sorrow  of  the  Tsar  when  he 
found  he  had  slain  his  beloved  son — the  one 
thing  he  loved  upon  earth,  and  there  remained 
to  inherit  the  fruit  of  his  labors  and  his  crimes 
only  another  child  (Feodor)  enfeebled  in  body 
and  mind,  and  an  infant  (Dmitri),  the  son  of 
his  seventh  wife.  His  death,  hastened  by 
grief,  took  place  three  years  later,  in  1584.  . 


CHAPTER   XII 

SERFDOM    CREATED THE   FIRST  ROMANOFF 

OCCASIONALLY  there  arises  a  man  in  history 
who,  without  distinction  of  birth  or  other  ad-' 
vantages,  is  strong  enough  by  sheer  ability  to 
grasp  the  opportunity,  vault  into  power,  and 
then  stem  the  tide  of  events.  Such  a  man  was 
Godwin,  father  of  Harold,  last  Saxon  King  in 
England;  and  such  a  man  was  Boris  Godunof, 
a  boyar,  who  had  so  faithfully  served  the  terri- 
ble Ivan  that  he  leaned  upon  him  and  at  last 
confided  to  him  the  supervision  of  his  feeble 
son  Feodor,  when  he  should  succeed  him. 
The  plans  of  this  ambitious  usurper  were 
probably  laid  from  the  time  of  the  tragic  death 
of  Ivan's  son,  the  Tsarevitch.  He  brought 
about  the  marriage  of  his  beautiful  sister  Irene 
with  Feodor,  and  from  the  hour  of  Ivan's 
death  was  virtual  ruler.  Dmitri,  the  infant 
son  of  the  late  Tsar,  aged  five  years,  was 
prudently  placed  at  a  distance — and  soon 
thereafter  mysteriously  died  (1591).  There 
can  be  no  doubt  that  the  unexplained  tragedy 
96 


A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.  97 

of  this  child's  death  was  perfectly  understood 
by  Boris;  and  when  Feodor  also  died,  seven 
years  later  (1598),  there  was  not  one  of  the  old 
Muscovite  line  to  succeed  to  the  throne.  But 
so  wise  had  been  the  administration  of  affairs 
by  the  astute  Regent  that  a  change  was 
dreaded.  A  council  offered  him  the  crown, 
which  he  feigned  a  reluctance  to  accept,  pre- 
ferring that  the  invitation  should  come  from 
a  source  which  would  admit  of  no  question 
as  to  his  rights  in  the  future.  Accordingly, 
the  States-General  or  Sobor  was  convened, 
and  Boris  Godunof  was  chosen  by  acclama- 
tion. 

The  work  of  three  reigns  was  undone.  A 
boyar  was  Tsar  of  Russia — and  a  boyar  not 
in  the  line  of  Rurik  and  with  Tatar  blood 
in  his  veins!  But  this  bold  and  unscrupu- 
lous man  had  performed  a  service  to  the 
state.  The  work  of  the  Muscovite  Princes 
was  finished,  and  the  extinction  of  the  line  was 
the  next  necessary  event  in  the  path  of 
progress. 

Boris  had  large  and  comprehensive  views 
and  proceeded  upon  new  lines  of  policy  to  re- 
construct the  state.  He  saw  that  Russia  must 
be  Europeanized,  and  he  also  saw  that  at  least 


98  A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 

one  radical  change  in  her  internal  policy  might 
be  used  to  insure  his  popularity  with  the 
Princes  and  nobles.  The  Russian  peasantry 
was  an  enormous  force  which  was  not  utilized 
to  its  fullest  extent.  It  included  almost  the  en- 
tire rural  population  of  Russia.  The  peasant 
was  legally  a  freeman.  He  lived  unchanged 
under  the  old  Slavonic  patriarchal  system  of 
M irs,  or  communes,  and  Volosts.  These  were 
the  largest  political  organizations  of  which  he 
had  personal  cognizance.  He  knew  nothing 
about  Muscovite  consolidation,  nor  oligarchy, 
nor  autocracy.  No  crumbs  from  the  modern 
banquet  had  fallen  into  his  lap.  With  a  thhv 
veneer  of  orthodoxy  over  their  paganism 
and  superstition  the  people  listened  in  childish 
wonder  to  the  same  old  tales — they  lived  their 
old  primitive  life  of  toil  under  the  same  system 
of  simple  fair-dealing  and  justice.  If  their 
commune  owned  the  land  it  tilled,  they  all 
shared  the  benefit  of  the  harvests,  paid  their 
tax  to  the  state,  and  all  was  well.  If  not,  it 
swarmed  like  a  community  of  bees  to  some 
wealthy  neighbor's  estate  and  sold  its  labor  to 
him,  and  then  if  he  proved  too  hard  a  task- 
master— even  for  a  patient  Russian  peasant — 
they  might  swarm  again  and  work  for  another. 


A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.  99 

The  tie  binding  them  to  special  localities  was 
only  the  very  slightest.  There  were  no  moun- 
tains to  love,  one  part  of  the  monotonous  pla- 
teau was  about  like  another;  and  as  for  their 
homes,  their  wooden  huts  were  burned  down 
so  often  there  were  no  memories  attached  to 
them. 

The  result  of  this  was  that  the  peasantry — 
that  immense  force  upon  which  the  state  at 
last  depended — was  not  stable  and  permanent, 
but  fluid.  At  the  slightest  invitation  of  better 
wages,  or  better  soil  or  conditions,  whole 
communities  might  desert  a  locality — would 
gather  up  their  goods  and  walk  off.  Boris, 
while  Regent,  conceived  the  idea  of  correcting 
this  evil,  in  a  way  which  would  at  the  same 
time  make  him  a  very  popular  ruler  with  the 
class  whose  support  he  most  needed,  the 
Princes  and  the  landowners.  He  would 
chain  the  peasant  to  the  soil.  A  decree  was 
issued  that  henceforth  the  peasant  must  not 
go  from  one  estate  to  another.  He  belonged 
to  the  land  he  was  tilling,  as  the  trees  that 
grew  on  it  belonged  to  it,  and  the  master  of 
that  land  was  his  master  for  evermore! 

Such,  in  brief  outline,  was  the  system  of 
serfdom  which  prevailed  until  1861.  It  was 


100         A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 

in  theory,  though  not  practically,  unlike  the 
institution  of  American  slavery.  The  people, 
still  living  in  their  communes,  still  clung  to 
the  figment  of  their  freedom,  not  really  under- 
standing that  they  were  slaves,  but  feeling 
rather  that  they  were  freemen  whose  sacred 
rights  had  been  cruelly  invaded.  That  they 
were  giving  to  hard  masters  the  fruit  of  their 
toil  on  their  own  lands. 

Now  that  Russia  was  becoming  a  modern 
state,  it  required  more  money  to  govern  her. 
Civilization  is  costly,  and  the  revenues  must 
not  be  fluctuating.  Boris  saw  they  could 
only  be  made  sure  by  attaching  to  the  soil  the 
peasant,  whose  labor  was  at  the  foundation 
of  the  prosperity  of  the  state.  It  was  the  peas- 
ant who  bore  the  weight  of  an  expanded  civi- 
lization which  he  did  not  share!  The  visitor 
at  Moscow  to-day  may  see  in  the  Kremlin  a 
wonderful  tower,  270  feet  high,  which  was 
erected  in  honor  of  Ivan  the  Great  by  the 
usurper  Boris;  but  the  monument  which  keeps 
his  memory  alive  is  the  more  stupendous  one 
of — Serfdom. 

The  expected  increase  in  prosperity  from 
the  new  system  did  not  immediately  come. 
The  revenues  were  less  than  before.  Bands 


A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.          IOI 

of  fugitive  serfs  were  fleeing  from  their 
masters  and  joining  the  community  of  free 
Cossacks  on  the  Don.  Lands  were  untilled, 
there  was  misery,  and  at  last  there  was  famine, 
and  then  discontent  and  demoralization  ex- 
tending to  the  upper  classes,  and  a  diminished 
income  which  finally  bore  upon  the  Tsar  him- 
self. 

Suddenly  there  came  a  rumor  that  Dmitri, 
the  infant  son  of  Ivan  the  Terrible,  was  not 
dead !  He  was  living  in  Poland,  and  with  in- 
contestable proofs  of  his  identity  was  coming 
to  claim  his  own.  In  1604  he  crossed  the 
frontier,  and  thousands  of  discontented  people 
flocked  to  his  standard  with  wild  enthusiasm. 
Boris  had  died  just  before  Dmitri  reached 
Moscow.  He  entered  the  city,  and  the  in- 
fatuated people  placed  in  his  hand  and  upon 
his  head  the  scepter  and  the  crown  of  Ivan  IV. ; 
and  after  making  sure  that  the  wife  and 
the  son  of  Boris  Godunof  were  strangled, 
this  amazing  Pretender  commenced  his  reign. 

An  extraordinary  thing  had  happened.  A 
nameless  adventurer  and  impostor  had  been 
received  with  tears  of  joy  as  the  son  of  Ivan 
and  of  St.  Vladimir,  the  seventh  wife  of  Ivan 
the  Terrible  even  recognizing  and  embracing 


103          A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 

him  as  her  son!  But  Dmitri  had  not  the  wis- 
dom to  keep  what  his  cunning  had  won.  His 
Polish  wife  came,  followed  by  a  suite  of  Polish 
Catholics,  who  began  to  carry  things  with  a 
high  hand.  The  clergy  was  offended  and 
soon  enraged.  In  five  years  Dmitri  was  as- 
sassinated, and  his  mutilated  corpse  was  lying 
in  the  palace  at  the  Kremlin,  an  object  of 
insult  and  derision;  and  then,  for  Russia  there 
came  another  chaos. 

For  a  brief  period  Vasili  Shuiski,  head  of 
one  of  the  princely  families,  reigned,  while 
two  more  "  false  Dmitris  "  appeared,  one  from 
Sweden  and  the  other  from  Poland.  The 
cause  of  the  latter  was  upheld  by  the  King  of 
Poland,  with  the  ulterior  purpose  of  bringing 
the  disordered  state  of  Russia  under  the 
Polish  crown,  and  making  one  great  Slav 
kingdom  with  its  center  at  Cracow. 

So  disorganized  had  the  State  become  that 
some  of  the  Princes  had  actually  opened  nego- 
tiations with  Sigismund  with  a  view  to  offering 
the  crown  to  his  son.  But  when  Sigismund 
with  an  invading  army  was  in  Moscow  ( 1610) , 
and  when  Vasili  Shiuski  was  a  prisoner  in 
Poland,  and  a  Polish  Prince  was  claiming  the 
title  of  Tsar,  there  came  an  awakening — not 


A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.          103 

among  the  nobility,  but  deep  down  in  the  heart 
of  orthodox  Russia.  From  this  awakening  of 
a  dormant  national  sentiment  and  of  the  re- 
ligious instincts  of  the  people  there  developed 
that  event, — the  most  health-restoring  which 
can  come  to  the  life  of  a  nation, — a  national 
uprising  in  which  all  classes  unite  in  averting 
a  common  disaster.  What  disaster  could  be 
for  Russia  more  terrible  than  an  absorption 
into  Catholic  Poland?  The  Polish  intruders 
and  pretenders  were  driven  out,  and  then  a 
great  National  Assembly  gathered  at  Moscow 
(1613)  to  elect  a  Tsar. 

The  name  of  Romanoff  was  unstained  by 
crime,  and  was  by  maternal  ancestry  allied  to 
the  royal  race  of  Rurik.  The  newly  awakened 
patriotism  turned  instinctively  toward  that,  as 
the  highest  expression  of  their  hopes;  and  Mik- 
hail Romanoff,  a  youth  of  16,  was  elected  Tsar. 

It  was  in  1547  that  Anastasia,  cf  the  House 
of  Romanoff,  had  married  Ivan  IV.  At  about 
the  same  time  her  brother  was  married  to  a 
Princess  of  Suzdal,  a  descendant  of  the  brother 
of  Alexander  Nevski.  This  Princess  was  the 
grandmother  of  Mikhail  Romanoff,  and  the 
source  from  which  has  sprung  the  present  rul- 
ing house  in  Russia. 


CHAPTER   XIII 

NIKON'S    ATTEMPT RASKOLNIKS 

IN  the  building  of  an  empire  there  are  two 
processes — the  building  up,  and  the  tearing 
down.  The  plow  is  no  less  essential  than  the 
trowel.  The  period  after  Boris  had  been  for 
Russia  the  period  of  the  wholesome  plow. 
The  harvest  was  far  off.  But  the  name 
Romanoff  was  going  to  stand  for  another 
Russia,  not  like  the  old  Russia  of  Kief,  nor 
yet  the  new  Russia  of  Moscow;  but  another 
and  a  Europeanized  Russia,  in  which,  after 
long  struggles,  the  Slavonic  and  half-Asiatic 
giant  was  going  to  tear  down  the  walls  of 
separation,  escape  from  his  barbarism,  and 
compel  Europe  to  share  with  him  her  civili- 
zation. 

The  man  who  was  to  make  the  first  breach 
in  the  walls  was  the  grandson  of  Mikhail 
Romanoff — Peter,  known  as  "  The  Great." 
But  the  mills  of  the  gods  grind  slowly — espe- 
cially when  they  have  a  great  work  in  hand; 
and  there  were  to  be  three  colorless  reigns 


A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.          105 

before  the  coming  of  the  Liberator  in  1689 — 
seventy-six  years  before  they  would  learn  that 
to  have  a  savage  despot  seated  on  a  barbaric 
throne,  with  crown  and  robes  incrusted  with 
jewels,  and  terrorizing  a  brutish,  ignorant,  and 
barbaric  people — was  not  to  be  Great. 

The  reigns  of  Mikhail  and  of  his  son  Alexis 
and  his  grandson  Feodor  were  to  be  reigns  of 
preparation  and  reform.  Of  course  there 
were  turbulent  uprisings  and  foreign  wars, 
and  perils  on  the  frontiers  near  the  Baltic  and 
the  Black  seas.  But  Russia  was  gaining  in 
ascendency  while  Poland,  from  whom  she  had 
narrowly  escaped,  was  fast  declining.  The 
European  rulers  began  to  see  advantages 
for  themselves  from  Russian  alliances.  Gus- 
tavus  Adolphus,  King  of  Sweden  and 
champion  of  Protestantism,  made  an  elo- 
quent appeal  to  the  Tsar  to  join  him 
against  Catholic  Poland — "  Was  not  the 
Romish  Church  their  common  enemy? 
— and  were  they  not  neighbors? — and  when 
your  neighbor's  house  is  afire,  is  it  not 
the  part  of  wisdom  and  prudence  to  help  to 
put  it  out?  "  Poland  suffered  a  serious  blow 
when  a  large  body  of  Cossacks,  who  were  her 
vassals,  and  her  chief  arm  of  defense  in  the 


106          A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 

Southeast,  in  1681  transferred  themselves 
bodily  to  Russia. 

The  Cossacks  were  a  Slavonic  people,  with 
no  doubt  a  plentiful  infusion  of  Asiatic  blood, 
and  their  name  in  the  Tatar  language  meant 
Freebooters.  They  had  long  dwelt  about  the 
Don  and  the  Dnieper,  in  what  is  known  as 
Little  Russia,  a  free  and  rugged  community 
which  was  recruited  by  Russians  after  the 
Tatar  invasion  and  Polish  conquest,  by  op- 
pressed peasants  after  the  creation  of  serfdom, 
and  by  adventurers  and  fugitives  from  justice 
at  all  times.  It  was  a  military  organization, 
and  its  Constitution  was  a  pure  democracy. 
Freedom  and  independence  were  their  first 
necessity.  Their  Hetman,  or  chief,  held  of- 
fice for  one  year  only,  and  anyone  might  at- 
tain to  that  position.  Their  horsemanship 
was  unrivaled — they  were  fearless  and  endur- 
ing, and  stood  ready  to  sell  their  services  to 
the  Khan  of  Tatary,  the  King  of  Poland,  or 
to  the  Tsar  of  Russia.  In  fact,  they  were  the 
Northmen  of  the  South  and  East,  and  are 
now — the  Rough-Riders  of  Russia. 

They  had  long  ago  divided  into  two  bands, 
the  "  Cossacks  of  the  Dnieper,"  loosely 
bound  to  Poland,  and  the  "  Cossacks  of  the 
Don,"  owning  the  sovereignty  of  Russia. 


A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.          107 

The  services  of  these  fearless  adventurers  were 
invaluable  as  a  protection  from  Turks  and 
Tatars;  and,  as  we  have  seen  in  the  matter  of 
Siberia,  they  sometimes  brought  back  prizes 
which  offset  their  misdoings.  The  King  of 
Poland  unwisely  attempted  to  proselyte  his 
Cossacks  of  the  Dnieper,  sent  Jesuit  mission- 
aries among  them,  and  then  concluded  to 
break  their  spirit  by  severities  and  make  of 
them  obedient  loyal  Catholic  subjects.  He 
might  as  well  have  tried  to  chain  the  winds. 
They  offered  to  the  Tsar  their  allegiance  in 
return  for  his  protection,  and  in  1681  all  of  the 
Cossacks,  of  the  Dnieper  as  well  as  the  Don, 
were  gathered  under  Russian  sovereignty.  It 
was  this  event  which,  in  the  long  struggle 
with  Poland,  turned  the  scales  at  last  in  favor 
of  Russia. 

One  of  the  most  important  occurrences  in 
this  reign  was  the  attempt  of  the  Patriarch 
Nikon  to  establish  an  authority  in  the  East 
similar  to  that  of  the  Pope  in  the  West — and 
in  many  ways  to  Latinize  the  Church.  This 
attempt  to  place  the  Tsar  under  spiritual  au- 
thority was  put  down  by  a  popular  revolt — 
followed  by  stricter  orthodox  methods  in  a 
sect  known  as  the  Raskolniks. 

Mikhail  died  in  1645,  and  was  succeeded  by 


Io8          A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 

his  son  Alexis.  The  new  Tsar  sent  an  envoy 
to  Charles  the  First  of  England  to  announce 
his  succession.  He  arrived  with  his  letter  to 
the  King  at  an  inopportune  time.  He 
was  on  trial  for  his  life.  The  Russian  could 
not  comprehend  such  a  condition,  and  haugh- 
tily refused  to  treat  with  anyone  but  the  King. 
He  was  received  with  much  ceremony  by  the 
House  of  Lords,  and  then  to  their  consterna- 
tion arose  and  said:  "I  have  come  from  my 
sovereign  charged  with  an  important  message 
to  your  King — Charles  the  First.  It  is  long 
since  I  came,  and  I  have  not  been  permitted 
^to  see  him  nor  to  deliver  the  letter  from  my 
master."  The  embarrassed  English  boyars  re- 
plied that  they  would  give  their  reasons  for 
this  by  letter.  When  the  Tsar  was  informed 
by  Charles  II.  of  the  execution  of  his  father, 
sternly  inflicted  by  his  people,  he  could  not 
comprehend  such  a  condition.  He  at  once 
forbade  English  merchants  to  live  in  any  of 
his  cities  except  Archangel,  and  sent  money 
and  presents  to  the  exiled  son. 

An  interest  attaches  to  the  marriage  of 
Alexis  with  Natalia,  his  second  wife.  He  was 
dining  with  one  of  his  boyars  and  was  at- 
tracted by  a  young  girl,  who  was  serving  him. 


A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.         109 

She  was  motherless,  and  had  been  adopted  by 
her  uncle  the  boyar.  The  Tsar  said  to  his 
friend  soon  after:  "  I  have  found  a  husband 
for  your  Natalia."  The  husband  was  Alexis 
himself,  and  Natalia  became  the  mother  of 
Peter  the  Great.  She  was  the  first  Princess 
who  ever  drew  aside  the  curtains  of  her  litter 
and  permitted  the  people  to  look  upon  her 
face.  Thrown  much  into  the  society  of  Euro- 
peans in  her  uncle's  home,  she  was  imbued 
with  European  ideas.  It  was  no  doubt  she 
who  first  instilled  the  leaven  of  reform  into 
the  mind  of  her  infant  son  Peter. 

One  of  the  most  important  features  of  this 
reign  was  the  development  of  the  fanatical 
sect  known  as  Raskolniks.  They  are  the  dis- 
senters or  non-conformists  of  Russia.  Their 
existence  dates  from  the  time  of  the  Patri- 
arch Nikon — and  what  they  considered  his 
sacrilegious  innovations.  But  as  early  as 
1476  there  were  the  first  stirrings  of  this 
movement  when  some  daring  and  advanced 
innovators  began  to  sing  "  O  Lord,  have 
mercy,"  instead  of  "  Lord,  have  Mercy,"  and 
to  say  "  Alleluia  "  twice  instead  of  three  times, 
to  the  peril  of  their  souls!  But  it  was  in  the 
reign  of  Alexis  that  signs  of  falling  away  from 


110          A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 

the  faith  spoken  of  in  the  Apocalypse  were 
unmistakable.  Foreign  heretics  who  shaved 
their  chins  and  smoked  the  accursed  weed 
were  tolerated  in  Holy  Moscow.  "  The 
number  of  the  Beast  "  indicated  the  year  1666. 
It  was  evident  that  the  end  of  the  world  was 
at  hand!  Such  was  the  beginning  of  the 
Raskolniks,  who  now  number  10,000,000  souls 
— a  conservative  Slavonic  element  which  has 
been  a  difficult  one  to  deal  with. 

Upon  the  death  of  Alexis,  in  1676,  his  eld- 
est son  Feodor  succeeded  him.  It  is  only 
necessary  to  mention  one  significant  act  in  his 
short  reign — the  destruction  of  the  Books  of 
Pedigrees.  The  question  of  precedence 
among  the  great  families  was  the  source  of 
endless  disputes,  and  no  man  would  accept  a 
position  inferior  to  any  held  by  his  ancestors, 
nor  would  serve  under  a  man  with  an  ancestry 
inferior  to  his  own.  Feodor  asked  that  the 
Books  of  Pedigrees  be  sent  to  him  for  exami- 
nation, and  then  had  them  every  one  thrown 
into  the  fire  and  burned.  This  must  have 
been  his  last  act,  for  his  death  and  this  holo- 
caust of  ancestral  claims  both  occurred  in  the 
year  1682. 


CHAPTER   XIV 

PETER   STUDIES   EUROPEAN    CIVILIZATION 

A  HISTORY  of  Russia  naively  designates  one 
of  its  chapters  "  The  Period  of  Troubles  "  ! 
When  was  there  not  a  period  of  troubles  in 
this  land?  The  historian  wearies,  and  doubt- 
less the  reader  too,  of  such  prolonged  dis- 
order and  calamity.  But  a  chapter  telling  of 
peace  and  tranquillity  would  have  to  be  in- 
vented. The  particular  sort  of  trouble  that 
developed  upon  the  death  of  Feodor  was  of  a 
new  variety.  Alexis  had  left  two  families  of 
children,  one  by  his  first  wife  and  the  other  by 
Natalia.  There  is  not  time  to  tell  of  all  the 
steps  by  which  Sophia,  daughter  of  the  first 
marriage,  came  to  be  the  power  behind  the 
throne  upon  which  sat  her  feeble  brother  Ivan, 
and  her  half-brother  Peter,  aged  ten  years. 
Sophia  was  an  ambitious,  strong-willed, 
strong-minded  woman,  who  dared  to  emanci- 
pate herself  from  the  tyranny  of  Russian 
custom. 

The  terem,   of  which  we  hear  so  much, 


Iia          A  SHORT  HISTORY  OP  RUSSIA. 

was  the  part  of  the  palace  sacred  to  the 
Tsaritsa  and  the  Princesses — upon  whose 
faces  no  man  ever  looked.  If  a  physician  were 
needed  he  might  feel  the  pulse  and  the  tem- 
perature through  a  piece  of  gauze — but  see 
the  face  never.  It  is  said  that  two  nobles  who 
one  day  accidentally  met  Natalia  coming  from 
her  chapel  were  deprived  of  rank  in  conse- 
quence. 

But  the  terem,  with  "  its  twenty-seven 
locks,"  was  not  going  to  confine  the  sister  of 
Peter.  She  met  the  eyes  of  men  in  public; 
studied  them  well,  too;  and  then  selected  the 
instruments  for  her  designs  of  effacing  Peter 
and  his  mother,  and  herself  becoming  sover- 
eign indeed.  A  rumor  was  circulated  that  the 
imbecile  Ivan  (who  was  alive)  had  been 
strangled  by  Natalia's  family.  In  the  tumult 
which  followed  one  of  her  brothers,  Peter's 
uncle,  was  torn  from  Natalia's  arms  and  cut  to 
pieces.  But  this  was  only  one  small  incident 
in  the  horrid  tragedy.  Then,  after  discovering 
that  the  Prince  was  not  dead,  the  bloodstains 
in  the  palace  were  washed  up,  and  the  two 
brothers  were  placed  upon  the  throne  under 
the  Regency  of  Sophia.  But  while  she  was 
outraging  the  feelings  of  the  people  by  her 


A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.          113 

contempt  for  ancient  customs,  and  while  her 
friendship  with  her  Minister,  Prince  Galitsuin, 
was  becoming  a  public  scandal,  Sophia  was  at 
the  same  time  being  defeated  in  a  campaign 
against  the  Turks  at  the  Crimea;  and  her 
popularity  was  gone. 

In  the  meantime  Peter  was  growing.  With 
no  training,  no  education,  he  was  in  his  own 
disorderly,  undisciplined  fashion  struggling  up 
into  manhood  under  the  tutelage  of  a  quick, 
strong  intelligence,  a  hungry  desire  to  know, 
and  a  hot,  imperious  temper.  His  first  toys 
were  drums  and  swords,  and  he  first  studied 
history  from  colored  German  prints;  and  as 
he  grew  older  never  wearied  of  reading  about 
Ivan  the  Terrible.  His  delight  was  to  go  out 
upon  the  streets  of  Moscow  and  pick  up 
strange  bits  of  information  from  foreign  ad- 
venturers about  the  habits  and  customs  of 
their  countries.  He  played  at  soldiers  with 
his  boy  companions,  and  after  finding  how 
.they  did  such  things  in  Germany  and  in  Eng- 
land, drilled  his  troops  after  the  European 
fashion.  But  it  was  when  he  first  saw  a  boat 
so  built  that  it  could  go  with  or  against  the 
wind,  that  his  strongest  instinct  was  awak- 
ened. He  would  not  rest  until  he  had  learned 


114          A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 

how  to  make  and  then  to  manage  it.  When 
this  strange,  passionate,  self-willed  boy  was 
seventeen  years  old,  he  realized  that  his  sister 
was  scheming  for  the  ruin  of  himself  and  his 
mother.  In  the  rupture  that  followed,  the 
people  deserted  Sophia  and  flocked  about 
Peter.  He  placed  his  sister  in  a  monastery, 
where,  after  fifteen  years  of  fruitless  intrigue 
and  conspiracy,  she  was  to  die.  Then,  con- 
jointly with  his  unfortunate  brother,  he  com- 
menced his  reign  (1689). 

If  Sophia  had  freed  herself  from  the  cus- 
tomary seclusion  of  Princesses,  Peter  emanci- 
pated himself  from  the  usual  proprieties  of  the 
palace.  Both  were  scandalous.  One  had 
harangued  soldiers  and  walked  with  her  veil 
lifted,  the  other  was  swinging  an  ax  like  a 
carpenter,  rowing  like  a  Cossack,  or  fighting 
mimic  battles  with  his  grooms,  who  not  in- 
frequently knocked  him  down.  In  1693  he 
gratified  one  great  thirst  and  longing.  With 
a  large  suite  he  went  up  to  Archangel— and 
for  the  first  time  a  Tsar  looked  out  upon  the 
sea!  He  ate  and  drank  with  the  foreign  mer- 
chants, and  took  deep  draughts  of  the  stimu- 
lating air  from  the  west.  He  established  a 
dock-yard,  and  while  his  first  ship  was  build- 


A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.          115 

ing  made  perilous  trips  upon  that  unknown 
ocean  from  which  Russia  had  all  its  life  been 
shut  out!  His  ship  was  the  first  to  bear  a 
Russian  flag  into  foreign  waters,  and  now 
Peter  had  taken  the  first  step  toward  learning 
how  to  build  a  navy,  but  he  had  no  place  yet 
to  use  one.  So  he  turned  his  nimble  activi- 
ties toward  the  Black  Sea.  He  had  only  to 
capture  Azof  in  the  Crimea  from  the  Turks, 
and  he  would  have  a  sea  for  his  navy — and 
then  might  easily  make  the  navy  for  his  sea! 
So  he  went  down,  carrying  his  soldiers  and 
his  new  European  tactics — in  which  no  one 
believed — gathered  up  his  Cossacks,  and 
the  attack  was  made,  first  with  utter  failure — 
all  on  account  of  the  new  tactics — and  then  at 
last  came  overwhelming  success;  and  a  tri- 
umphant return  (1676)  to  Moscow  under 
arches  and  garlands  of  flowers.  Three  thou- 
sand Russian  families  were  sent  to  colonize 
Azof,  which  was  guarded  by  some  regiments 
of  the  Streltsui  and  by  Cossacks — and  now 
there  must  be  a  navy. 

There  must  be  nine  ships  of  the  line,  and 
twenty  frigates  carrying  fifty  guns,  and  bomb- 
ships,  and  fireships.  That  would  require  a 
great  deal  of  money.  It  was  then  that  the 


II 6          A  SHORT  HISTORY  OP  RUSSIA. 

utility  of  the  system  of  serfdom  became  ap- 
parent. The  prelates  and  monasteries  were 
taxed — one  vessel  to  every  eighty  thousand  serfs! 
— according  to  their  wealth  all  the  orders  of 
nobility  to  bear  their  portion  in  the  same  way, 
and  the  peasants  toiled  on,  never  dreaming 
that  they  were  building  a  great  navy  for  the 
great  Tsar.  Peter  then  sent  fifty  young  no- 
bles of  the  court  to  Venice,  England,  and  the 
Netherlands  to  learn  the  arts  of  shipbuilding 
and  seamanship  and  gunnery.  But  how 
could  he  be  sure  of  the  knowledge  and  the 
science  of  these  idle  youths — unless  he 
himself  owned  it  and  knew  better  than 
they?  The  time  had  come  for  his  long- 
indulged  dream  of  visiting  the  Western 
kingdoms. 

But  while  there  were  rejoicings  at  the  vic- 
tory over  the  Turks,  there  was  a  feeling  of 
universal  disgust  at  the  new  order  of  things; 
with  the  militia  (the  Streltsui)  because  for- 
eigners were  preferred  to  them  and  because 
they  were  subjected  to  an  unaccustomed  dis- 
cipline; with  the  nobles  because  their  children 
were  sent  into  foreign  lands  among  heretics 
to  learn  trades  like  mechanics;  and  with  the 
landowners  and  clergy  because  the  cost  of 


A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.          n/ 

equipping  a  great  fleet  fell  upon  them.     All 
classes  were  ripe  for  a  revolt. 

Sophia,  from  her  cloister,  was  in  corre- 
spondence with  her  agents,  and  a  con- 
spiracy ripened  to  overthrow  Peter  and 
his  reforms.  As  the  Tsar  was  one  even- 
ing sitting  down  to  an  entertainment 
with  a  large  party  of  ladies  and  gen- 
tlemen, word  was  brought  that  someone 
desired  to  see  him  privately  upon  an  impor- 
tant matter.  He  promptly  excused  himself 
and  was  taken  in  a  sledge  to  the  appointed 
place.  There  he  graciously  sat  down  to  sup- 
per with  a  number  of  gentlemen,  as  if  per- 
fectly ignorant  of  their  plans.  Suddenly  his 
guard  arrived,  entered  the  house,  and  ar- 
rested the  entire  party,  after  which  Peter  re- 
turned in  the  best  of  humor  to  his  interrupted 
banquet,  quite  as  if  nothing  had  happened. 
The  next  day  the  prisoners  under  torture  re- 
vealed the  plot  to  assassinate  him  and  then  lay 
it  to  the  foreigners,  this  to  be  followed  by  a 
general  massacre  of  Europeans — men,  wo- 
men, and  children.  The  ringleaders  were 
first  dismembered,  then  beheaded — their 
legs  and  arms  being  displayed  in  conspicu- 
ous places  in  the  city,  and  the  rest  of  the 


Ii8          A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 

conspirators,  excepting  his  sister  Sophia,  were 
sent  to  Siberia. 

With  this  parting  and  salutary  lesson  to  his 
subjects  in  1697,  Peter  started  upon  his 
strange  travels — in  quest  of  the  arts  of  civili- 
zation ! 

The  embassy  was  composed  of  270  persons. 
Among  them  was  a  young  man  twenty-five 
years  old,  calling  himself  Peter  Mikhailof, 
who  a  few  weeks  later  might  have  been 
seen  at  Saardam  in  Holland,  in  complete 
outfit  of  workman's  clothes,  in  dust  and 
by  the  sweat  of  his  brow  learning  the 
art  of  ship-carpentry.  Such  was  the  first 
introduction ,  to  Europe  of  the  Tsar  of 
Russia!  They  had  long  heard  of  this  auto- 
crat before  whom  millions  trembled,  rul- 
ing like  a  savage  despot  in  the  midst  of 
splendors  rivaling  the  Arabian  Nights. 
Now  they  saw  him!  And  the  amazement 
can  scarcely  be  described.  He  dined  with 
the  Great  Electress  Sophia,  afterwards  first 
Queen  of  Prussia,  and  she  wrote  of  him: 
"  Nature  has  given  him  an  infinity  of  wit. 
With  advantages  he  might  have  been  an  ac- 
complished man.  What  a  pity  his  manners 
are  not  less  boorish!" 


A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.          Up 

But  Peter  was  not  thinking  of  the  impres- 
sion he  made.  With  an  insatiable  inquisitive- 
ness  and  an  omnivorous  curiosity,  he  was 
looking  for  the  secret  of  power  in  nations. 
Nothing  escaped  him — cutlery,  rope-making, 
paper  manufacture,  whaling  industry,  surgery, 
microscopy;  he  was  engaging  artists,  officers, 
engineers,  surgeons,  buying  models  of  every- 
thing he  saw — or  standing  lost  in  admiration 
of  a  traveling  dentist  plying  his  craft  in  the 
market,  whom  he  took  home  to  his  lodgings, 
learned  the  use  of  the  instruments  himself, 
then  practiced  his  new  art  upon  his  fol- 
lowers. 

At  The  Hague  he  endured  the  splendid 
public  reception,  then  hurried  off  his  gold- 
trimmed  coat,  his  wig  and  hat  and  white 
feathers,  and  was  amid  grime  and  dust  ex- 
amining grist-mills,  and  ferry-boats,  and  irri- 
gating machines.  To  a  lady  he  saw  on  the 
street  at  Amsterdam  he  shouted  "  Stop !  " 
then  dragged  out  her  enameled  watch,  exam- 
ined it,  and  put  it  back  without  a  word.  A 
nobleman's  wig  in  similar  unceremonious 
fashion  he  snatched  from  his  head,  turned  it 
inside  out,  and,  not  being  pleased  with  its 
make,  threw  it  on  the  floor. 


120          A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 

Perhaps  Holland  heard  without  regret  that 
her  guest  was  going  to  England,  where 
he  was  told  the  instruction  was  based 
upon  the  principles  of  ship-building  and 
he  might  learn  more  in  a  few  weeks 
than  by  a  year's  study  elsewhere.  King 
William  III.  placed  a  fleet  at  his  dis- 
posal, and  also  a  palace  upon  his  arrival  in 
London.  A  violent  storm  alarmed  many  on 
the  way  to  England,  but  Peter  enjoyed  it  and 
humorously  said,  "  Did  you  ever  hear  of  a 
Tsar  being  lost  in  the  North  Sea?  "  England 
was  no  less  astonished  than  Holland  at  her 
guest,  but  William  III.,  the  wisest  sover- 
eign in  Europe,  we  learn  was  amazed  at  the 
vigor  and  originality  of  his  mind.  The  wise 
Bishop  Burnet  wrote  of  him:  "  He  is  mechan- 
ically turned,  and  more  fitted  to  be  a  carpenter 
than  a  Prince.  He  told  me  he  designed  a 
great  fleet  for  attacking  the  Turkish  Empire, 
but  he  does  not  seem  to  me  capable  of  so 
great  an  enterprise."  This  throws  more  light 
upon  the  limitations  of  Bishop  Burnet  than 
those  of  Peter  the  Great,  and  fairly  illustrates 
the  incompetency  of  contemporary  estimates 
of  genius;  or,  perhaps,  the  inability  of  talent 
to  take  the  full  measure  of  genius  at  any  time. 


A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.  121 

The  good  Bishop  adds  that  he  adores  the  wise 
Providence  which  "  has  raised  up  such  a 
furious  man  to  reign  over  such  a  part  of  the 
world."  Louis  XIV.  "  had  procured  the 
postponement  of  the  honor  of  his  visit";  so 
Peter  prepared,  after  visiting  Vienna,  to  go  to 
Venice,  but  receiving  disturbing  news  of 
matters  at  home,  this  uncivilized  civilizer,  this 
barbarian  reformer  of  barbarism,  turned  his 
face  toward  Moscow. 

There  was  widespread  dissatisfaction  in  the 
empire.  The  Streltsui  (militia)  was  rebel- 
lious, the  heavily  taxed  landowners  were 
angry,  and  the  people  disgusted  by  the  prev- 
alence of  German  clothes  and  shaved  faces. 
Had  not  the  wise  Ivan  IV.  said:  "To  shave  is 
a  sin  that  the  blood  of  all  the  martyrs  could 
not  cleanse " !  And  who  had  ever  before 
seen  a  Tsar  of  Moscow  quit  Holy  Russia  to 
wander  in  foreign  lands  among  Turks  and 
Germans?  for  both  were  alike  to  them.  Then 
it  was  rumored  that  Peter  had  gone  in  disguise 
to  Stockholm,  and  that  the  Queen  of  Sweden 
had  put  him  into  a  cask  lined  with  nails  to 
throw  him  into  the  sea,  and  he  had  only  been 
saved  by  one  of  his  guards  taking  his  place; 
and  some  years  later  many  still  believed  that 


122          A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 

it  was  a  false  Tsar  who  returned  to  them  in 
1700 — that  the  true  Tsar  was  still  a  prisoner 
at  Stockholm,  attached  to  a  post.  Sophia 
wrote  to  the  Strcltsiii — "  You  suffer — but  you. 
will  suffer  more.  Why  do  you  wait?  March 
on  Moscow.  There  is  no  news  of  the  Tsar.'* 
The  army  was  told  that  he  was  dead,  and  that 
the  boyars  were  scheming  to  kill  his  infant  son 
Alexis  and  then  get  into  power  again.  Thou- 
sands of  revolted  troops  from  Azof  began  to 
pour  into  Moscow,  then  there  was  a  rumor 
that  the  foreigners  and  the  Germans — who 
were  introducing  the  smoking  of  tobacco  and 
shaving,  to  the  utter  destruction  of  the  holy 
faith — were  planning  to  seize  the  town.  Peter 
returned  to  find  Moscow  the  prey  to  wild  dis- 
order, in  the  hands  of  scheming  revolutionists 
and  mutineers.  He  concluded  it  was  the  right 
time  to  give  a  lesson  which  would  never  be 
forgotten.  He  would  make  the  partisans  of 
Old  Russia  feel  the  weight  of  his  hand  in  a 
way  that  would  remind  them  of  Ivan  IV. 

On  the  day  of  his  return  the  nobles  all  pre- 
sented themselves,  laying  their  faces,  as  was 
the  custom,  in  the  dust.  After  courteously 
returning  their  salutations,  Peter  ordered  that 
every  one  of  them  be  immediately  shaved;  and 


A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.          123 

as  this  was  one  of  the  arts  he  had  practiced 
while  abroad  he  initiated  the  process  by  skill- 
fully applying  the  razor  himself  to  a  few  of  the 
long-beards.  Then  the  inquiry  into  the  re- 
bellion commenced.  The  Patriarch  tried  to 
appease  the  wrath  of  the  Tsar,  who  an- 
swered: "  Know  that  I  venerate  God  and  his 
Mother  as  much  as  you  do.  But  also  know 
that  I  shall  protect  my  people  and  punish 
rebels."  The  "  chastisement  "  was  worthy  of 
Ivan  the  Terrible.  The  details  of  its  infliction 
are  too  dreadful  to  relate,  and  we  read  with 
incredulous  horror  that  "  the  terrible  carpen- 
ter of  Saardam  plied  his  own  ax  in  the  horri- 
ble employment — and  that  on  the  last  day 
Peter  himself  put  to  death  eighty-four  of  the 
Strdtsui,  "  compelling  his  boyars  to  assist  " — 
in  inflicting  this  "  chastisement!  " 


CHAPTER   XV 

CHARLES    XII. NARVA ST.     PETERSBURG 

THE  Baltic  was  at  this  time  a  Swedish  sea. 
Finland,  Livonia,  and  all  the  territory  on  the 
eastern  coast,  where  once  the  Russians  and  the 
German  knights  had  struggled,  was  now 
under  the  sovereignty  of  an  inexperienced 
young  king  who  had  just  ascended  the  throne 
of  his  father  Charles  XL,  King  of  Sweden.  If 
Peter  ever  "  opened  a  window "  into  the 
West,  it  must  be  done  by  first  breaking 
through  this  Swedish  wall.  Livonia  was 
deeply  aggrieved  just  now  because  of  some 
oppressive  measures  against  her,  and  her 
astute  minister,  Patkul,  suggested  to  the 
King  of  Poland  that  he  form  a  coalition  be- 
tween that  kingdom,  Denmark,  and  Russia  for 
the  purpose  of  breaking  the  aggressive  Scan- 
dinavian power  in  the  North.  The  time  was 
favorable,  with  disturbed  conditions  in 
Sweden,  and  a  youth  of  eighteen  without  ex- 
perience upon  the  throne.  The  Tsar,  who 
had  recently  returned  from  abroad  and  had 

134 


A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.          125 

settled  matters  with  his  Strdtsui  in  Moscow, 
saw  in  this  enterprise  just  the  opportunity  he 
desired,  and  joined  the  coalition. 

At  the  Battle  of  Narva  (1700)  there  were 
two  surprises:  one  when  Peter  found  that  he 
knew  almost  nothing  about  the  art  of  warfare, 
and  the  other  when  it  was  revealed  to  Charles 
XII.  that  he  was  a  military  genius  and  his  nat- 
ural vocation  was  that  of  a  conqueror.  But 
if  Charles  was  intoxicated  by  his  enormous 
success,  Peter  accepted  his  humiliating  defeat 
almost  gratefully  as  a  harsh  lesson  in  military 
art.  The  sacrifice  of  men  had  been  terrible, 
but  the  lesson  was  not  lost.  The  next  year 
there  were  small  Russian  victories,  and  these 
crept  nearer  and  nearer  to  the  Baltic,  until  at 
last  the  river  upon  which  the  great  Nevski 
won  his  surname  was  reached — and  the  Neva 
was  his!  Peter  lost  no  time.  He  personally 
superintended  the  building  of  a  fort  and  then 
a  church  which  were  to  be  the  nucleus  of  a 
city;  and  there  may  be  seen  in  St.  Petersburg 
to-day  the  little  hut  in  which  lived  the  Tsar 
while  he  was  founding  the  capital  which  bears 
his  name  (1703).  No  wonder  it  seemed  a 
wild  project  to  build  the  capital  of  an  empire, 
not  only  on  its  frontier,  but  upon  low  marshy 


126          A  SHORT  HISTORY  OP  RUSSIA. 

ground  subject  to  the  encroachments  of  the 
sea  from  which  it  had  only  half  emerged;  and 
in  a  latitude  where  for  two  months  of  the  year 
the  twilight  and  the  dawn  meet  and  there  is 
no  night,  and  where  for  two  other  months  the 
sun  rises  after  nine  in  the  morning  and  sets 
before  three.  Not  only  must  he  build  a  city, 
but  create  the  dry  land  for  it  to  stand  upon; 
and  it  is  said  that  six  hundred  acres  have  been 
reclaimed  from  the  sea  at  St.  Petersburg  since 
it  was  founded. 

Charles  XII.  was  too  much  occupied  to 
care  for  these  insignificant  events.  He  sent 
word  that  when  he  had  time  he  would  come 
and  burn  down  Peter's  wooden  town.  He 
was  leading  a  victorious  army  toward  Poland, 
he  had  beheaded  the  traitorous  Patkul,  and 
everything  was  bowing  before  him.  The 
great  Marlborough  was  suing  for  his  aid  in  the 
coalition  against  Louis  XIV.  in  the  War  of 
the  Spanish  Succession.  Flushed  with  vic- 
tory, Charles  felt  that  the  fate  of  Europe  was 
lying  in  his  hands.  He  had  only  to  decide  in 
which  direction  to  move — whether  to  help  to 
curb  the  ambition  of  the  Grand  Monarque  in 
the  West,  or  to  carry  out  his  first  design  of 
crushing  the  rising  power  of  the  Great  Auto- 


A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.          127 

crat  in  the  East.  He  preferred  the  latter. 
The  question  then  arose  whether  to  enter 
Russia  by  the  North  or  by  way  of  Poland, 
where  he  was  now  master.  The  scale  was 
turned  probably  by  learning  that  the  Cossacks 
in  Little  Russia  were  growing  impatient  and 
were  ripe  for  rebellion  against  the  Tsar. 

Peter  was  anxious  to  prevent  the  invasion. 
He  had  a  wholesome  admiration  for  the  terri- 
ble Swedish  army,  not  much  confidence  in  his 
own,  and  his  empire  was  in  disorder.  He 
sent  word  to  Charles  that  he  would  be  satis- 
fied to  withdraw  from  the  West  if  he  could 
have  one  port  on  the  Baltic.  The  king's 
haughty  reply  was:  "Tell  your  Tsar  I  will 
treat  with  him  in  Moscow,"  to  which  Peter 
rejoined:  "  My  brother  Charles  wants  to  play 
the  part  of  an  Alexander,  but  he  will  not  find 
in  me  a  Darius." 

It  is  possible  that  upon  Ivan  Mazeppa,  who 
was  chief  or  Hetman  of  the  Cossacks  at  this 
time,  rests  the  responsibility  of  the  crushing 
defeat  which  terminated  the  brilliant  career  of 
Charles  XII.  Mazeppa  was  the  Polish  gen- 
tleman whose  punishment  at  the  hands  of  an 
infuriated  husband  has  been  the  subject  of 
poems  by  Lord  Byron  and  Pushkin,  and  also 


128          A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 

of  a  painting  by  Horace  Vernet.  This  pic- 
turesque traitor,  who  always  rose  upon  the 
necks  of  the  people  who  trusted  him,  whose 
friendships  he  one  after  another  invariably  be- 
trayed, reached  a  final  climax  of  infamy  by 
offering  to  sacrifice  the  Tsar,  the  friend  who 
believed  in  him  so  absolutely  that  he  sent  into 
exile  or  to  death  anyone  who  questioned  his 
fidelity.  Mazeppa  had  been  with  Peter  at 
Azof,  and  abundant  honors  were  waiting  for 
him;  but  he  was  dazzled  by  the  career  of  the 
Swedish  conqueror,  and  believed  he  might 
rise  higher  under  Charles  XII.  than  under  his 
rough,  imperious  master  at  Moscow.  So  he 
wrote  the  King  that  he  might  rely  upon  him 
to  join  him  with  40,000  Cossacks  in  Little 
Russia.  He  thought  it  would  be  an  easy  mat- 
ter to  turn  the  irritated  Cossacks  from  the 
Tsar.  They  were  restive  under  the  severity 
of  the  new  military  regime,  and  also  smarting 
under  a  decree  forbidding  them  to  receive  any 
more  fugitive  peasants  fleeing  from  serfdom. 
But  he  had  miscalculated  their  lack  of  fidelity 
and  his  own  power  over  them. 

It  was  this  fatal  promise,  which  was  never 
to  be  kept,  that  probably  lured  Charles  to  his 
ruin.  After  a  long  and  disastrous  campaign 


A  SHORT  HISTORY  OP  RUSSIA.          129 

He  met  his  final  crushing  defeat  at  Poltova  in 
1709.  The  King  and  Mazeppa,  companions 
in  flight,  together  entered  the  Sultan's  do- 
minions as  fugitives,  and  of  the  army  before 
which  a  short  time  ago  Europe  had  trembled 
— there  was  left  not  one  battalion. 

The  Baltic  was  passing  into  new  hands. 
"  The  window  "  opening  upon  the  West  was 
to  become  a  door,  and  the  key  of  the  door  was 
to  be  kept  upon  the  side  toward  Russia! 
Sweden,  which  under  Gustavus  Adolphus, 
Charles  XL,  and  Charles  XII.  had  played  such 
a  glorious  part,  was  never  to  do  it  again ;  and 
the  place  she  had  left  vacant  was  to  be  filled 
by  a  new  and  greater  Power.  Russia  had  dis- 
pelled the  awakened  dream  of  a  great  Scan- 
dinavian Empire  and — so  long  excluded  and 
humiliated — was  going  to  make  a  triumphal 
entry  into  the  family  of  European  nations. 

The  Tsar,  with  his  innovations  and  reforms, 
was  vindicated.  For  breadth  of  design  and 
statesmanship  there  was  not  one  sovereign  in 
the  coalition  who  could  compare  with  this 
man  who,  Bishop  Burnet  thought,  was  better 
fitted  for  a  mechanic  than  a  Prince — and  "  in- 
capable of  a  great  enterprise." 

Of    Charles    XII.   it  has  been  said  that 


130          A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 

"  he  was  a  hero  of  the  Scandinavian  Edda  set 
down  in  the  wrong  century,"  and  again  that 
he  was  the  last  of  the  Vikings,  and  of  the 
Varangian  Princes.  But  Mazeppa  said  of 
him,  when  dying  in  exile:  "  How  could  I  have 
been  seduced  in  my  old  age  by  a  military 
vagabond! " 

Ivan,  Peter's  infirm  brother  and  associate 
upon  the  throne,  had  died  in  1696.  Another 
oppressive  tie  had  also  been  severed.  He  had 
married  at  seventeen  Eudoxia,  belonging  to 
a  proud  conservative  Russian  family.  He  had 
never  loved  her,  and  when  she  scornfully  op- 
posed his  policy  of  reform,  she  became  an  ob- 
ject of  intense  aversion.  After  his  triumph  at 
Azof,  he  sent  orders  that  the  Tsaritsa  must  not 
be  at  the  palace  upon  his  return,  and  soon 
thereafter  she  was  separated  from  her  child 
Alexis,  placed  in  a  monastery,  and  finally  di- 
vorced. At  the  surrender  of  Marienburg  in 
Livonia  (1702)  there  was  among  the  captives 
the  family  of  a  Lutheran  pastor  named  Gliick. 
Catherine,  a  young  girl  of  sixteen,  a  servant 
in  the  family,  had  just  married  a  Swedish 
soldier,  who  was  killed  the  following  day  in 
battle.  We  would  have  to  look  far  for  a 
more  romantic  story  than  that  of  this  Protes- 


A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.          131 

tant  waiting-maid.  Menschikof,  Peter's  great 
general,  was  attracted  by  her  beauty  and  took 
the  young  girl  under  his  protection.  But 
when  the  Tsar  was  also  fascinated  by  her  art- 
less simplicity,  she  was  transferred  to  his  more 
distinguished  protection.  Little  did  Catherine 
think  when  weeping  for  her  Swedish  lover  in 
Pastor  Gliick's  kitchen  that  she  was  on  her 
way  to  the  throne  of  Russia.  But  such  was 
her  destiny.  She  did  not  know  how  to  write 
her  name,  but  she  knew  something  which 
served  her  beter.  She  knew  how  to  establish 
an  influence  possessed  by  no  one  else  over  the 
strange  husband  to  whom  in  1707  she  was 
secretly  married. 


CHAPTER    XVI 

RUSSIA  XNOUTED  INTO   CIVILIZATION — PETER 
DEAD 

WHILE  Peter  was  absorbing  more  territory 
on  the  Baltic,  and  while  he  was  with  frenzied 
haste  building  his  new  city,  Charles  XII.  was 
still  hiding  in  Poland.  The  Turks  were  burn- 
ing with  desire  to  recapture  Azof,  and  the 
Khan  of  Tartary  had  his  own  revenges  and  re- 
prisals at  heart  urging  him  on;  so,  at  the  in- 
stigation of  Charles  and  the  Khan,  the  Sultan 
declared  war  against  Russia  in  1710. 

It  seemed  to  the  Russian  people  like  a  re- 
vival of  their  ancient  glories  when  their  Tsar, 
with  a  great  army,  was  following  in  the  foot- 
steps of  the  Grand  Princes  to  free  the  Slav 
race  from  its  old  infidel  enemies.  Catherine, 
from  whom  Peter  would  not  be  separated, 
was  to  be  his  companion  in  the  campaign. 
But  the  enterprise,  so  fascinating  in  prospect, 
was  attended  with  unexpected  disaster  and 
suffering;  and  the  climax  was  finally  reached 
when  Peter  was  lying  ill  in  his  tent,  with  an 
army  of  only  24,000  men  about  to  face  one 

*3* 


A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.          133 

of  over  200,000 — Tatars  and  Turks — com- 
manded by  skilled  generals,  adherents  of 
Charles  XII.  This  was  probably  the  darkest 
hour  in  Peter's  career.  The  work  of  his  life 
was  about  to  be  overthrown;  it  seemed  as  if  a 
miracle  could  not  save  him.  Someone  sug- 
gested that  the  cupidity  of  the  Grand  Vizier, 
Balthazi,  was  the  vulnerable  spot.  He  loved 
gold  better  than  glory.  Two  hundred  thou- 
sand rubles  were  quickly  collected — Catherine 
throwing  in  her  jewels  as  an  added  lure.  The 
shining  gold,  with  the  glittering  jewels  on  top, 
averted  the  inevitable  fate.  Balthazi  con- 
sented to  treat  for  peace  upon  condition  that 
Charles  XII.  be  permitted  to  go  back  to 
Sweden  unmolested,  and  that  Azof  be  relin- 
quished (Treaty  of  Pruth).  Peter's  heart  was 
sorely  wrung  by  giving  up  Azof,  and  his  fleet, 
and  his  outlet  to  the  Southern  seas.  The 
peace  was  costly,  but  welcome;  and  Catherine 
had  earned  his  everlasting  gratitude. 

The  Tsar  now  returned  to  the  task  of  re- 
forming his  people.  There  were  to  be  no 
more  prostrations  before  him:  the  petitioner 
must  call  himself  "  subject,"  not  "  slave,"  and 
must  stand  upright  like  a  man  in  his  presence, 
even  if  he  had  to  use  his  stick  to  make  him  do 


134          A  SHORT  HISTORY  OP  RUSSIA. 

so!  The  Asiatic  caftan  and  the  flowing  robes 
must  go  along  with  the  beards;  the  terem,  with 
its  "  twenty-seven  locks,"  must  be  abolished; 
the  wives  and  daughters  dragged  from  their 
seclusion  must  be  clothed  like  Europeans. 
Marriage  must  not  be  compelled,  and  the  be- 
trothed might  see  each  other  before  the 
wedding  ceremony. 

If  it  is  difficult  to  civilize  one  willing  bar- 
barian, what  must  it  have  been  to  compel 
millions  to  put  on  the  garment  of  respecta- 
bility which  they  hated!  Never  before  was 
there  such  a  complete  social  reorganization, 
so  entire  a  change  in  the  daily  habits  of  a 
whole  people;  and  so  violently  effected.  It 
required  a  soul  of  iron  and  a  hand  of  steel  to 
do  it;  and  it  has  been  well  said  that  Russia 
was  knouted  into  civilization.  A  secret 
service  was  instituted  to  see  that  the  changes 
were  adopted,  and  the  knout  and  the  ax  were 
the  accompaniment  of  every  reforming  edict. 
This  extraordinary  man  was  by  main  force 
dragging  a  sullen  and  angry  nation  into  the 
path  of  progress,  and  by  artificial  means  try- 
ing to  accomplish  in  a  lifetime  what  had  been 
the  growth  of  centuries  in  other  lands. 

Then  there  must  be  no  competing  author!- 


A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.          135 

ties — no  suns  shining  near  to  the  Central 
Sun.  The  Patriarchate — which,  after  Nikon's 
attempt  in  the  reign  of  his  grandfather,  had 
been  shorn  of  authority — was  now  abolished, 
and  a  Holy  Synod  of  his  own  appointing 
took  its  place.  For  the  Sobor  or  States-Gen- 
eral there  was  substituted  a  Senate,  also  of 
his  own  appointing.  The  Streltsui,  or  militia, 
was  swept  out  of  existence;  the  military  Cos- 
sacks were  deprived  of  their  Hetman  or  leader; 
and  a  standing  army,  raised  by  recruiting,  re- 
placed these  organizations.  Nobility  meant 
service.  Every  nobleman  while  he  lived  must 
serve  the  state,  and  he  held  his  fief  only  upon 
condition  of  such  service;  while  a  nobleman 
who  could  not  read  or  write  in  a  foreign 
tongue  forfeited  his  birthright.  This  was  the 
way  Peter  fought  idleness  and  ignorance  in 
his  land !  New  and  freer  municipal  organiza- 
tions were  given  to  the  cities,  enlarging  the 
privileges  of  the  citizens;  schools  and  colleges 
were  established;  the  awful  punishment  for 
debtors  swept  away.  He  was  leveling  up  as 
well  as  leveling  down — trying  to  create  a 
great  plateau  of  modern  society,  in  which  he 
alone  towered  high,  rigid,  and  inexorable. 
If  the  attempt  was  impossible  and  against 


136          A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 

nature,  if  Peter  violated  every  law  of  social 
development  by  such  a  monstrous  creation  of 
a  modern  state,  what  could  have  been  done 
better?  How  long  would  it  have  taken  Rus- 
sia to  grow  into  modern  civilization?  And 
what  would  it  be  now  if  there  had  not  been 
just  such  a  strange  being — with  the  nature 
and  heart  of  a  barbarian  joined  with  a  brain 
and  an  intelligence  the  peer  of  any  in  Europe, 
capable  of  seeing  that  the  only  hope  for  Rus- 
sia was  by  force  to  convert  it  from  an  Asiatic 
into  a  European  state? 

One  act  bore  with  extreme  severity  upon 
the  free  peasantry.  They  were  compelled  to 
enroll  themselves  with  the  serfs  in  their  Com- 
munes, or  to  be  dealt  with  as  vagrants.  Peter 
has  been  censured  for  this  and  also  for  not 
extending  his  reforming  broom  to  the  Com- 
munes and  overthrowing  the  whole  patri- 
archal system  under  which  they  existed — a 
system  so  out  of  harmony  with  the  mod- 
ern state  he  was  creating.  But  it  seems 
to  the  writer  rather  that  he  was  guided  by  a 
sure  instinct  when  he  left  untouched  the  one 
thing  in  a  Slavonic  state  which  was  really 
Slavonic.  He  and  the  long  line  of  rulers  be- 
hind him  had  been  ruling  by  virtue  of  an  au- 


A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.          137 

thority  established  by  aliens.  Russia  had 
from  the  time  of  Rurik  been  governed  and 
formed  after  foreign  models.  Peter  was  at 
least  choosing  better  models  than  his  prede- 
cessors. If  it  was  an  apparent  mistake  to 
build  a  modern,  centralized  state  in  the  eigh- 
teenth century  upon  a  social  organization  be- 
longing to  the  eleventh  century,  it  may  be 
that  in  so  doing,  an  inspired  despot  builded 
wiser  than  he  knew.  May  it  not  be  that  the 
final  regeneration  of  that  land  is  to  come  some 
day,  from  the  leaven  of  native  instincts  in  her 
peasantry,  which  have  never  been  invaded  by 
foreign  influences  and  which  have  survived  all 
the  vicissitudes  of  a  thousand  years  in  Russia? 
The  Raskolniks,  composed  chiefly  of  free 
peasants  and  the  smaller  merchant  class,  had 
fled  in  large  numbers  from  these  blasphemous 
changes — some  among  the  Cossacks,  and 
many  more  to  the  forests,  hiding  from  perse- 
cution and  from  this  reign  of  Satan.  The 
more  they  studied  the  Apocalypse  the  plainer 
became  the  signs  of  the  times.  Satan  was 
being  let  loose  for  a  period.  They  had  been 
looking  for  the  coming  of  Antichrist  and  now 
he  had  come!  The  man  in  whom  the  spirit 
of  Satan  was  incarnate  was  Peter  the  Great* 


138          A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 

How  else  could  they  explain  such  impious 
demeanor  in  a  Tsar  of  Russia — except  that  he 
was  of  Satanic  origin,  and  was  the  Devil  in 
disguise?  By  his  newly  invented  census  had 
he  not  "  numbered  the  people  " — a  thing  ex- 
pressly forbidden?  And  his  new  "  calendar," 
transferring  September  to  January,  was  it 
not  clearly  a  trick  of  Satan  to  steal  the  days  of 
the  Lord?  And  his  new  title  Imperator  (Em- 
peror), had  it  not  a  diabolic  sound?  And  his 
order  to  shave,  to  disfigure  the  image  of  God! 
How  would  Christ  recognize  his  own  at  the 
Last  Day? 

Hunted  like  beasts,  these  people  were  living 
in  wild  communities,  dying  often  by  their  own 
hands  rather  than  yield  the  point  of  making 
the  sign  of  the  cross  with  two  fingers  instead 
of  three — 2700  at  one  time  voluntarily  perish- 
ing in  the  flames,  in  a  church  where  they  had 
taken  refuge.  Peter  put  an  end  to  their  per- 
secution. They  were  permitted  to  practice 
their  ancient  rites  in  the  cities  and  to  wear 
beards  without  molestation,  upon  condition  of 
paying  a  double  poll-tax. 

The  millions  of  Raskolniks  in  Russia  to-day 
still  consider  New  Russia  a  creation  of  the 
evil  one,  and  the  Tsar  as  Antichrist.  They 


A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.          139 

yield  a  sullen  compliance — pray  for  the  Tsar, 
then  in  private  throw  away  the  handle  of  a 
door  if  a  heretic  has  touched  it.  It  is  a  con- 
servative Slavonic  element  which  every  Tsar 
since  Mikhail  Romanoff  has  had  to  deal  with. 
Not  one  of  the  reforms  was  more  odious  to 
the  people  than  the  removal  of  the  capital 
from  Moscow  to  St.  Petersburg.  It  violated 
the  most  sacred  feelings  of  the  nation;  and 
many  a  soul  was  secretly  looking  forward  to 
the  time  when  there  would  be  no  Peter,  and 
they  would  return  to  the  shrine  of  revered  as- 
sociations. But  the  new  city  grew  in  splen- 
dor— a  city  not  of  wood,  to  be  the  prey  of  con- 
flagrations like  Moscow;  but  of  stone,  the  first 
Russia  had  yet  possessed.  The  great  Nevski 
was  already  there  lying  in  a  cathedral  bearing 
his  name,  and  the  Cathedral  of  Sts.  Peter 
and  Paul  was  ready  to  entomb  the  fu- 
ture Tsars.  And  Peter  held  his  court, 
a  poor  imitation  of  Versailles,  and  gave 
great  entertainments  at  which  the  shy 
and  embarrassed  ladies  in  their  new  cos- 
tumes kept  apart  by  themselves,  and  the  at- 
tempt to  introduce  the  European  dances  was 
a  very  sorry  failure.  In  1712  Peter  planned 
a  visit  to  Paris,  with  two  ends  in  view — & 


140          A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 

political  alliance  and  a  matrimonial  one.  He 
ardently  desired  to  arrange  for  the  future 
marriage  of  his  little  daughter  Elizabeth  with 
Louis  XV.,  the  infant  King  of  France. 
Neither  suit  was  successful,  but  it  is  interest- 
ing to  learn  how  different  was  the  impression 
he  produced  from  the  one  twelve  years  before. 
Saint-Simon  writes  of  him:  "  His  manner  was 
at  once  the  most  majestic,  the  proudest,  the 
most  sustained,  and  at  the  same  time  the  least 
embarrassing."  That  he  was  still  eccentric 
may  be  judged  from  his  call  upon  Mme.  de 
Maintenon.  She  was  ill  in  bed,  and  could  not 
receive  him;  but  he  was  not  to  be  baffled. 
He  drew  aside  the  bed-curtains  and  stared  at 
her  fixedly,  while  she  in  speechless  indigna- 
tion glared  at  him.  So,  without  one  word, 
these  two  historic  persons  met — and  parted! 
He  probably  felt  curious  to  see  what  sort  of 
a  woman  had  enthralled  and  controlled  the 
policy  of  Louis  XIV.  Peter  did  not  intend  to 
subject  his  wife  to  the  criticism  of  the  witty 
Frenchwomen,  so  prudently  left  her  at  home. 
Charles  XII.  died  in  1718,  and  in  1721  there 
was  at  last  peace  with  Sweden.  But  the  sad- 
dest war  of  all,  and  one  which  was  never  to 
cease,  was  that  in  Peter's  own  household. 


A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.          14* 

His  son  Alexis,  possibly  embittered  by  his 
mother's  fate,  and  certainly  by  her  influence, 
grew  up  into  a  sullen,  morose,  and  perverse 
youth.  In  vain  did  his  father  strive  to  fit  him 
for  his  great  destiny.  By  no  person  in  the 
empire — unless,  perhaps,  his  mother — were 
Peter's  reforms  more  detested  than  by  the 
son  and  heir  to  whom  he  expected  to  intrust 
them.  He  was  in  close  communication  with 
his  mother  Eudoxia,  who  in  her  monastery, 
holding  court  like  a  Tsaritsa,  was  sur- 
rounded by  intriguing  and  disaffected  nobles 
— all  praying  for  the  death  of  Peter.  Every 
method  for  reaching  the  head  or  heart  of  this 
incorrigible  son  utterly  failed.  During  Pe- 
ter's absence  abroad  in  1717,  Alexis  disap- 
peared. Tolstoi,  the  Tsar's  emissary,  after  a 
long  search  tracked  him  to  his  hiding  place 
and  induced  him  to  return.  There  was  a  ter- 
rible scene  with  his  father,  who  had  discov- 
ered that  his  son  was  more  than  perverse,  he 
was  a  traitor — the  center  of  a  conspiracy,  and 
in  close  relations  with  his  enemies  at  home 
and  abroad,  betraying  his  interests  to  Ger- 
many and  to  Sweden. 

The    plan,    instieated    by    Eudoxia,    was 
that  Alexis,  immediately  upon  the  death  of 


143          A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 

his  father — which  God  was  importuned  to 
hasten — should  return  to  Moscow,  restore 
the  picturesque  old  barbarism,  abandon  the 
territory  on  the  Baltic,  and  the  infant  navy, 
and  the  city  of  his  father's  love;  in  other 
words,  that  he  should  scatter  to  the  winds  the 
prodigious  results  of  his  father's  reign!  It 
was  monstrous — and  so  was  its  punishment! 
Eudoxia  was  whipped  and  placed  in  close  con- 
finement, and  thirty  conspirators,  members  of 
her  "  court,"  were  in  various  ways  butch- 
ered. Then  Alexis,  the  confessed  traitor,  was 
tried  by  a  tribunal  at  the  head  of  which  was 
Menschikof — and  sentenced  to  death. 

On  the  morning  of  the  27th  of  June,  1718, 
the  Tsar  summoned  his  son  to  appear  before 
nine  of  the  greatest  officers  of  the  state.  Con- 
cerning what  happened,  the  lips  of  those  nine 
men  were  forever  sealed.  But  the  day  fol- 
lowing it  was  announced  that  Alexis,  the  son 
of  the  emperor,  was  dead;  and  it  is  be- 
lieved that  he  died  under  the  knout. 

The  question  of  succession  now  became  a 
very  grave  one.  Alexis,  who  had  under  com- 
pulsion married  Charlotte  of  Brunswick,  left 
a  son  Peter.  The  only  other  heirs  were  the 
Tsar's  two  daughters  Anna  and  Elizabeth,  the 


A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.          143 

children  of  Catherine.  Shortly  after  the 
tragedy  of  his  son's  death,  Peter  caused 
Catherine  to  be  formally  crowned  Empress, 
probably  in  anticipation  of  his  own  death, 
which  occurred  in  1725. 


CHAPTER    XVII 

GERMINATING   OF   SEED CATHERINE   EMPRESS 

THE  chief  objection  to  a  wise  and  beneficent 
despotism  is  that  its  creator  is  not  immortal. 
The  trouble  with  the  Alexanders  and  the 
Charlemagnes  and  the  Peters  is  that  the  span 
of  human  life  is  too  short  for  their  magnifi- 
cent designs,  which  fall,  while  incomplete, 
into  incompetent  or  vicious  hands,  and  the 
work  is  overthrown.  Peter's  rest  in  his  mau- 
soleum at  Sts.  Peter  and  Paul  must  have  been 
uneasy  if  he  saw  the  reigns  immediately  suc- 
ceeding his  own.  Not  one  man  capable  of 
a  lofty  patriotism  like  his,  not  one  man  work- 
ing with  unselfish  energy  for  Russia;  but,  just 
as  in  the  olden  time,  oligarchic  factions  with 
leaders  striving  for  that  cause  which  would 
best  protect  and  elevate  themselves.  Men- 
schikof,  Apraxin,  Tolstoi  promoting  the  cause 
of  Catherine  that  they  may  not  suffer  for  the 
death  sentence  passed  upon  Alexis;  Galitsuin 
and  others  seeing  their  interests  in  the  sue- 

M4 


A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.          145 

cession  of  Peter,  son  of  Alexis  and  grandson 
of  the  Emperor. 

Catherine's  harmless  reign  was  over  in  two 
years  (1727)  and  was  followed  by  another, 
equally  brief  and  harmless,  by  the  young 
Peter  II.  The  wily  Menschikof  succeeded  in 
betrothing  his  daughter  to  the  young  Em- 
peror, but  not  in  retaining  his  ascendency 
over  the  self-willed  boy. 

We  wonder  if  Peter  saw  his  great  minister 
scheming  for  wealth  and  for  power,  and  then 
his  fall,  like  Wolsey's,  from  his  pinnacle.  We 
wonder  if  he  saw  him  with  his  own  hands 
building  his  hut  on  the  frozen  plains  of  Siberia, 
clothed,  not  in  rich  furs  and  jewels,  but 
bearded  and  in  long,  coarse,  gray  smock- 
frock;  his  daughter,  the  betrothed  of  an  Em- 
peror, clad,  not  in  ermine,  but  in  sheep-skin. 
Perhaps  the  lesson  with  his  master  the  Car- 
penter of  Saardam  served  him  in  building  his 
own  shelter  in  that  dread  abode.  Nor  was 
he  alone.  He  had  the  best  of  society,  and  at 
every  turn  of  the  wheel  ac  St.  Petersburg  it 
had  aristocratic  recruits.  The  Galitsuins  and 
the  Dolgorukis  would  have  joined  him  soon 
had  they  not  died  in  prison,  and  many  others 
had  they  not  been  broken  on  the  wheel  or  be- 


146          A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 

headed  by  Anna,  the  coarse  and  vulgar  wo- 
man who  succeeded  Peter  II.,  when  he  sud- 
denly died  in  1730. 

Anna  Ivanovna  was  the  daughter  of 
Peter's  brother  Ivan  V.,  who  was  asso- 
ciated with  him  upon  the  throne.  She 
had  the  force  to  defeat  an  oligarchic  at- 
tempt to  tie  her  hands.  The  plan  had 
originated  with  the  Galitsuins  and  Dolgo- 
rukis,  and  was  really  calculated  to  benefit  the 
state  in  a  period  of  incompetent  or  vicious 
rulers  by  having  the  authority  of  the  Crown 
limited  by  a  council  of  eight  ministers.  But 
it  was  reactionary.  It  was  introducing  a 
principle  which  had  been  condemned,  and 
was  a  veiled  attempt  to  undo  the  work  of  the 
Ivans  and  the  Romanoffs,  and  to  place  the  real 
power  as  of  old  in  the  hands  of  ruling  families. 
The  plan  fell,  and  the  leaders  fell  with  it,  and 
a  host  of  their  followers.  The  executioners 
were  busy  at  St.  Petersburg,  and  the  aristo- 
cratic colony  in  Siberia  grew  larger. 

Anna's  reign  was  the  period  of  a  preponder- 
ating German  influence  in  politics  and  at 
court.  Germans  held  high  positions;  one  of 
them,  Gustav  Biron,  the  highest  and  most  in- 
fluential of  all.  Anna's  infatuation  for  this 


A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.          147 

man  made  him  the  ruling  spirit  in  her  reign 
and  the  Regent  in  the  next,  until  he  had  his 
turn  in  disgrace  and  exile.  Added  to  the  dis- 
satisfaction on  account  of  German  ascendency 
was  a  growing  feeling  that  the  succession 
should  come  through  Peter,  instead  of 
through  Ivan,  his  insignificant  associate  upon 
the  throne.  Such  was  the  prevailing  senti- 
ment at  the  time  of  Anna's  death  (1740).  The 
Tsaritsa  named  Ivan,  a  grand-nephew,  the  in- 
fant son  of  her  niece  Anna,  her  successor  un- 
der the  Regency  of  Biron,  the  man  who  had 
controlled  the  policy  of  the  administration 
during  her  reign. 

This  was  only  a  brief  and  tragic  episode. 
Biron  was  swiftly  swept  out  of  power  and  into 
exile,  and  succeeded  in  the  Regency  by  Anna, 
the  mother  of  the  infant  Emperor;  then,  fol- 
lowing quickly  upon  that,  was  a  carefully  ma- 
tured conspiracy  formed  in  the  interest  of 
Elizabeth  Petrovna,  the  beautiful  daughter 
whose  marriage  with  the  young  Louis  XV. 
had  been  an  object  of  the  great  Peter's  hopes. 

In  this  connection  it  is  well  to  mention  that 
the  terminations  vich  and  vna,  so  constantly 
met  in  Russian  names,  have  an  important  sig- 
nificance— vich  meaning  son  of,  and  vno> 


148         A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA, 

daughter  of.  Elisabeth  Pctrovna  is  Elizabeth 
the  daughter  of  Peter,  and  Peter  Alexievich  is 
Peter  the  son  of  Alexis.  In  like  manner  Tsare- 
vich  and  Tsarevna  are  respectively  the  son  and 
daughter  of  the  Tsar;  Czar,  Czarevich,  and 
Czarevna  being  the  modern  form,  and  Czarina 
instead  of  Tsaritsa.  The  historian  may  for 
convenience  omit  the  surname  thus  created, 
but  in  Russia  it  would  be  a  great  breach  of  de- 
corum to  do  so. 

By  a  sudden  coup  d'etat,  Elizabeth  Petrovna 
took  her  rightful  place  upon  the  throne  of 
her  father  (1741).  In  the  dead  of  night  the 
unfortunate  Anna  and  her  husband  were 
awakened,  carried  into  exile,  and  their  infant 
son  Ivan  VI.  was  immured  in  a  prison,  where 
he  was  to  grow  up  to  manhood, — shattered  in 
mind  by  his  horrible  existence  of  twenty  years, 
— and  then  to  be  mercifully  put  out  of  the  way 
as  a  possible  menace  to  the  ambitious  plans 
of  a  woman. 

Of  the  heads  that  dropped  by  orders  of 
Elizabeth  it  is  needless  to  speak;  but  of  one 
that  was  spared  there  is  an  interesting  ac- 
count. Ostermann,  a  German,  had  been  vice 
chancellor  to  the  Empress  Anna,  and  had  also 
brought  about  the  downfall  of  Biron  the  Re- 


A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.          149 

gent.  Now  his  turn  had  come.  He  was  ta- 
ken to  the  place  of  execution  with  the  rest; 
his  gray  head  was  laid  upon  the  block,  his 
collar  unbuttoned  and  gown  drawn  back  by 
the  executioner — when  a  reprieve  was  an- 
nounced. Her  Gracious  Majesty  was  going 
to  permit  him  to  go  to  Siberia.  He  arose, 
bowed,  said:  "  I  pray  you  give  me  back  my 
wig,"  calmly  put  it  on  the  head  he  had  not 
lost,  buttoned  his  shirt,  replaced  his  gown, 
and  started  to  join  his  company  of  friends— 
and  of  enemies — in  exile. 

Elizabeth  was  a  vain  voluptuary.  If  any 
glory  attaches  to  her  reign  it  came  from  the 
stored  energies  left  by  her  great  father.  The 
marvel  is  that  in  this  succession  of  vicious  and 
aimless  tyrannies  by  shameless  women  and  in- 
competent men,  Russia  did  not  fall  into 
anarchy  and  revolution.  But  nothing  was 
undone.  The  dignity  of  Moscow  was  pre- 
served by  the  fact  that  the  coronations  must 
take  place  there.  But  there  was  no  longer  a 
reactionary  party  scheming  for  a  return  to  the 
Ancient  City.  The  seed  scattered  by  Peter 
had  everywhere  taken  hold  upon  the  soil,  and 
now  began  to  burst  into  flower.  A  university 
was  founded  at  Moscow.  St.  Petersburg  was 


ISO         A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 

filled  with  French  artists  and  scholars,  and  had 
an  Academy  of  Art  and  of  Science,  which  the 
great  Voltaire  asked  permission  to  join, 
while  conferring  with  Ivan  Shuvalof  over  the 
History  of  Peter  the  Great  which  he  was  then 
engaged  in  writing.  There  were  no  more 
ugly  German  costumes;  French  dress,  man- 
ners and  speech  were  the  fashion.  Russia  was 
assimilating  Europe:  it  had  tried  Holland  un- 
der Peter,  then  Germany  under  Empress 
Anna;  but  found  its  true  affinity  with  France 
under  Elizabeth,  when  to  write  and  speak 
French  like  a  Parisian  became  the  badge  of 
high  station  and  culture. 

So  of  its  own  momentum  Russia  had  moved 
on  without  one  strong  competent  person- 
ality at  its  head,  and  had  become  a  tremen- 
dous force  which  must  be  reckoned  with  by 
the  nations  of  Europe.  In  every  great  politi- 
cal combination  the  important  question  was, 
on  which  side  she  would  throw  her  immense 
weight;  and  Elizabeth  was  courted  and  flat- 
tered to  her  heart's  content  by  foreign  diplo- 
matists and  their  masters.  Frederick  the 
Great  had  reason  to  regret  that  he  had  been 
witty  at  her  expense.  It  was  almost  his  un- 
doing by  turning  the  scale  against  him  at  a 


A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.          151 

critical  moment.  Elizabeth  did  not  forget  it 
and  had  her  revenge  when  she  joined  Maria 
Theresa  in  the  final  struggle  with  Frederick 
in  1757.  And  Frederick  also  remembered  it 
in  1760,  when,  as  he  dramatically  expressed 
it,  "  The  Barbarians  were  in  Berlin  engaged 
in  digging  the  grave  of  humanity." 

But  all  benefit  from  these  enormous  suc- 
cesses was  abandoned,  when  the  commanding 
Russian  officer  Apraxin  mysteriously  with- 
drew and  returned  with  his  army  to  Russia. 
This  was  undoubtedly  part  of  a  deeply  laid 
plot  of  which  Frederick  was  cognizant,  and 
working  in  concert  with  a  certain  dis- 
tinguished lady  in  Elizabeth's  own  court — a 
clever  puller  of  wires  who  was  going  to  fill 
some  important  chapters  in  Russian  history! 

The  Empress  had  chosen  for  her  successor 
her  nephew  Peter,  son  of  her  only  sister  and 
the  Duke  of  Holstein.  The  far-seeing  Fred- 
erick had  brought  about  a  marriage  between 
this  youth  and  a  German  Princess,  Sophia  of 
Anhalt-Zerbst.  Then  the  Future  Emperor 
Peter  III.  and  his  German  bride  took  up  their 
abode  in  the  palace  at  St.  Petersburg,  she  hav- 
ing been  rechristened  Catherine,  upon  adopt- 
ing the  Greek  faith.  A  mutual  dislike  deep- 


152          A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 

ened  into  hatred  between  this  brilliant,  clever 
woman  and  her  vulgar  and  inferior  husband; 
and  there  is  little  doubt  that  the  treacherous 
conduct  of  the  Russian  commander  was  part 
of  a  plan  to  place  her  infant  son  Paul  upon  the 
throne  instead  of  his  father,  and  make  her  Re- 
gent. Elizabeth's  death  was  apparently  at 
hand  and  the  general  mistrust  of  Peter's  fit- 
ness for  the  position  opened  the  way  for  such 
a  conspiracy — which,  however,  is  not  known, 
but  only  suspected. 

The  one  merciful  edict  which  adorns  this 
reign  is  the  "  abolishing  of  the  death  penalty." 
But  as  the  knout  became  more  than  ever  ac- 
tive, we  are  left  to  infer  that  by  a  nice  dis- 
tinction in  the  Russian  mind  death  under  that 
instrument  of  torture  was  not  considered 
"  capital  punishment." 

It  is  said  that  when  the  daughter  of  the 
austere  Peter  died,  she  left  sixteen  thousand 
dresses,  thousands  of  slippers,  and  two  large 
chests  of  silk  stockings — a  wardrobe  which 
would  have  astonished  her  mother  at  the  time 
she  was  serving  the  table  of  the  Pastor  Gliick. 
Elizabeth  expired  in  1761,  and  the  throne 
passed  to  Peter  III.,  grandson  of  Peter  the 
Great  and  Catherine  I. 


A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.          153 

The  first  act  of  the  new  Tsar  was  a  de- 
lightful surprise  to  the  nobility.  He  pub- 
lished a  manifesto  freeing  the  nobles  from  the 
obligation  of  service  imposed  by  Peter  the 
Great,  saying  that  this  law,  which  was  wise  at 
the  time  it  was  enacted,  was  no  longer  neces- 
sary, now  that  the  nobility  was  enlightened 
and  devoted  to  the  service  of  their  ruler.  The 
grateful  nobles  talked  of  erecting  a  statue  of 
gold  to  this  benign  sovereign,  who  in  like 
manner  abolished  the  Secret  Court  of  Police 
and  proclaimed  pardon  to  thousands  of  polit- 
ical fugitives.  The  B irons  were  recalled  from 
Siberia,  and  the  old  Duke  of  Kurland  and  his 
wife  came  back  like  shades  from  another 
world,  after  twenty  years  of  exile. 

But  this  pleasant  prelude  was  very  brief. 
The  nobles  soon  found  that  their  golden  idol 
would  have  to  be  made  instead  of  very  coarse 
clay.  Nothing  could  exceed  the  grossness 
and  the  unbalanced  folly  of  Peter's  course. 
He  reversed  the  whole  attitude  of  the  state 
toward  Germany.  So  abject  was  his  devo- 
tion to  Frederick  the  Great  that  he  restored 
to  him  the  Russian  conquests,  and  reached 
the  limit  which  could  be  borne  when  he 
shouted  at  one  of  his  orgies:  "  Let  us  drink  to 


154         A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 

the  health  of  our  King  and  master  Frederick. 
You  may  be  assured  if  he  should  order  it,  I 
would  make  war  on  hell  with  all  my  empire." 
He  was  also  planning  to  rid  himself  of  Cath- 
erine and  to  disinherit  her  child  Paul  in  favor 
of  Ivan  VI.;  and  with  this  in  view  that  unfor- 
tunate youth,  who  after  his  twenty  years'  im- 
prisonment was  a  mental  wreck,  was  brought 
to  St.  Petersburg. 

Catherine's  plans  were  carefully  laid  and 
then  swiftly  executed.  The  Emperor  was  ar- 
rested and  his  abdication  demanded.  He 
submitted  as  quietly  as  a  child.  Catherine 
writes:  "  I  then  sent  the  deposed  Emperor  in 
the  care  of  Alexis  Orlof  and  some  gentle  and 
reasonable  men  to  a  palace  fifteen  miles  from 
Peterhof,  a  secluded  spot,  but  very  pleas- 
ant." 

In  four  days  it  was  announced  that  the  late 
Emperor  had  "  suddenly  died  of  a  colic  to 
which  he  was  subject."  It  is  known  that  he 
was  visited  by  Alexis  Orlof  and  another  of 
Catherine's  agents  in  his  "  pleasant  "  retreat, 
who  saw  him  privately;  that  a  violent  strug- 
gle was  heard  in  his  room;  and  that  he  was 
found  lying  dead  with  the  black  and  blue 
mark  of  a  colossal  hand  on  his  throat.  That 


A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.          155 

the  hand  was  Orlof's  is  not  doubted;  but 
whether  acting  under  orders  from  Catherine 
or  not  will  never  be  known. 

This  is  what  is  known  as  the  "  Revolution 
of  1762,"  which  placed  Catherine  II.  upon 
the  throne  of  Russia.  Her  son  Paul  was  only 
six  years  old;  and  in  less  than  two  years  Ivan 
VI.,  the  only  claimant  to  the  throne  who  could 
become  the  center  of  a  conspiracy  against  her 
authority,  was  most  opportunely  removed. 
It  was  said  that  his  guards  killed  him  to  pre- 
vent an  attempted  rescue.  No  one  knows  or 
ever  will  know  whether  or  not  Catherine  was 
implicated  in  his  "  taking  off."  But  certainly 
nothing  at  the  time  could  have  pleased  her 
better. 


CHAPTER   XVIII 

PARTITION  OF  POLAND DEATH  OF  CATHERINE 

EUROPEAN  diplomacy  at  this  period  was 
centered  about  the  perishing  state  of  Poland. 
That  kingdom,  once  so  powerful,  was  becom- 
ing every  year  more  enfeebled. 

It  was  a  defective  social  organization  and 
an  arrogant  nobility  that  ruined  Poland. 
There  existed  only  two  classes — nobles  and 
serfs.  The  business  and  trade  of  the  state 
were  in  the  hands  of  Germans  and  Jews,  and 
there  existed  no  national  or  middle  class  in 
which  must  reside  the  life  of  a  modern  state. 
In  other  words,  Poland  was  patriarchal  and 
mediaeval.  She  had  become  unsuited  to  her 
environment.  Surrounded  by  powerful  ab- 
solutisms which  had  grown  out  of  the  ruins  of 
mediaeval  forces,  she  in  the  eighteenth  cen- 
tury was  clinging  to  the  traditions  of  feudal- 
ism as  if  it  were  still  the  twelfth  century.  It 
was  in  vain  that  her  sons  were  patriotic,  in 
vain  that  they  struggled  for  reforms,  in  vain 
that  they  lay  down  and  died  upon  battlefields. 
156 


A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.          157 

She  alone  in  Europe  had  not  been  borne  along 
on  that  great  wave  of  centralization  long  ago, 
and  she  had  missed  an  essential  experience. 
She  was  out  of  step  with  the  march  of  civili- 
zation, and  the  advancing  forces  were  going 
to  run  over  her. 

The  more  enlightened  Poles  began  too  late 
to  strive  for  a  firm  hereditary  monarchy,  and 
to  try  to  curb  the  power  of  selfish  nobles. 
Not  only  was  their  state  falling  to  pieces 
within,  but  it  was  being  crushed  from  without. 
Protestant  Prussia  in  the  West,  Greek  Russia 
in  the  East,  and  Catholic  Austria  on  the  South, 
each  preparing  to  absorb  all  it  could  get  away 
— not  from  Poland,  but  from  each  other.  It 
was  obvious  that  it  was  only  a  question  of  time 
when  the  feeble  kingdom  wedged  in  between 
these  powerful  and  hungry  states  must  suc- 
cumb; and  for  Russia,  Austria,  and  Prussia 
it  was  simply  a  question  as  to  the  share  which 
should  fall  to  each. 

Such  was  the  absorbing  problem  which  em- 
ployed Catherine's  powers  from  the  early 
years  of  her  reign  almost  to  its  close.  Eu- 
rope soon  saw  that  it  was  a  woman  of  no 
ordinary  ability  who  was  sitting  on  the  throne 
of  Russia.  In  her  foreign  policy,  and  in  the 


1 58          A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 

vigor  infused  into  the  internal  administration 
of  her  empire,  the  master-hand  became  ap- 
parent. 

As  a  counter-move  to  her  designs  upon  Po- 
land, the  Turks  were  induced  to  harass  her 
by  declaring  war  upon  Russia.  There  was  a 
great  surprise  in  store  for  Europe  as  well  as 
for  the  Ottoman  Empire.  This  dauntless  wo- 
man was  unprepared  for  such  an  emergency; 
but  she  wrote  to  one  of  her  generals:  "  The 
Romans  did  not  concern  themselves  with  the 
number  of  their  enemies;  they  only  asked, 
*  Where  are  they?  '  Her  armies  swept  the 
Peninsula  clear  of  Tatars  and  of  Turks,  and 
in  1771  a  Russian  fleet  was  on  the  Black  Sea, 
and  the  terror  of  Constantinople  knew  no 
bounds.  If  affairs  in  Europe  and  disorders 
in  her  own  empire  had  not  been  so  pressing, 
the  long-cherished  dream  of  the  Grand 
Princes  might  have  been  realized. 

A  plague  in  Moscow  broke  out  in  1771 
which  so  excited  the  superstitions  of  the  peo- 
ple, that  it  led  to  an  insurrection;  immediately 
following  this,  a  terrible  demoralization  was 
created  in  the  South  by  an  illiterate  Cossack 
named  Pugatchek,  who  announced  that  he 
was  Peter  the  Third.  He  claimed  that  in- 


A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.          159 

stead  of  dying  as  was  supposed,  he  had  es- 
caped to  the  Ukraine,  and  was  now  going  to 
St.  Petersburg  with  an  army  to  punish  his  wife 
Catherine  and  to  place  his  son  Paul  upon  the 
throne.  As  a  pretender  he  was  not  dangerous, 
but  as  a  rallying  point  for  unhappy  serfs  and 
for  an  exasperated  and  suffering  people  look- 
ing for  a  leader,  he  did  become  a  very  for- 
midable menace,  which  finally  developed 
into  a  Peasants'  War.  The  insurrection  was 
at  last  quelled,  and  ended  with  the  execution 
of  the  false  Peter  at  Moscow. 

In  the  midst  of  these  distractions  at 
home,  while  fighting  the  Ottoman  Empire 
for  the  shores  of  the  Black  Sea,  and  all 
Europe  over  a  partition  of  Poland,  the  Em- 
press was  at  the  same  time  introducing  re- 
forms in  every  department  of  her  incoherent 
and  disordered  empire.  Peter  the  Great  had 
abolished  the  Patriarchate.  She  did  more. 
The  monasteries  and  the  ecclesiastical  estates, 
which  were  exempt  from  taxes  during  all  the 
period  of  Mongol  dominion,  had  never  paid 
tribute  to  Khans,  had  in  consequence  grown 
to  be  enormously  wealthy.  It  is  said  the 
clergy  owned  a  million  serfs.  Catherine 
placed  the  property  of  the  Church  under  the 


l6o          A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 

administration  of  a  secular  commission,  and 
the  heads  of  the  monasteries  and  the  clergy 
were  converted  from  independent  sovereigns 
into  mere  pensioners  of  the  Crown.  Then  she 
assailed  the  receiving  of  bribes,  and  other 
corrupt  practices  in  the  administration  of  jus- 
tice. She  struggled  hard  to  let  in  the  light  of 
better  instruction  upon  the  upper  and  middle 
classes.  If  she  could,  she  would  have  abol- 
ished ignorance  and  cruelty  in  the  land,  not 
because  she  was  a  philanthropist,  but  because 
she  loved  civilization.  It  was  her  intellect, 
not  her  heart,  that  made  Catherine  a  reformer. 
When  she  severely  punished  and  forever  dis- 
graced a  lady  of  high  rank  for  cruelty  to  her 
serfs, — forty  of  whom  had  been  tortured  to 
death, — it  was  because  she  had  the  educated 
instincts  of  a  European,  not  an  Asiatic,  and 
she  had  also  the  intelligence  to  realize  that 
no  state  could  be  made  sound  which  rested 
upon  a  foundation  of  human  misery.  She 
established  a  Russian  Academy  modeled 
after  the  French,  its  object  being  to  fix  the 
rules  for  writing  and  speaking  the  Russian 
language  and  to  promote  the  study  of  Rus- 
sian history.  In  other  words,  Catherine  was 
a  reformer  fully  in  sympathy  with  the  best 


A  SHORT  HISTORY  OP  RUSSIA.          161 

methods  prevailing  in  Western  Europe.  She 
was  profoundly  interested  in  the  New  Philos- 
ophy and  the  intellectual  movement  in  France, 
was  in  correspondence  with  Voltaire  and  the 
Encyclopedists,  and  a  student  of  the  theories 
of  Rousseau. 

Of  course  the  influence  exerted  by  French 
genius  over  Russian  civilization  at  this  time 
did  not  penetrate  far  below  the  upper  and 
highly  educated  class;  but  there  is  no  doubt 
it  left  a  deep  impress  upon  the  literature  and 
art  of  the  nation,  and  also  modified  Russian 
characteristics  by  introducing  religious  toler- 
ance and  habits  of  courtesy,  besides  making 
aspirations  after  social  justice  and  political 
liberty  entirely  respectable.  Catherine's 
"  Book  of  Instructions  "  to  the  commission 
which  was  created  by  her  to  assist  in  making 
a  new  code  of  laws  contained  political  max- 
ims which  would  satisfy  advanced  reformers 
to-day;  although  when  she  saw  later  that  the 
French  Revolution  was  their  logical  conclu- 
sion, she  repudiated  them,  took  Voltaire's  bust 
down  from  its  pedestal,  and  had  it  thrown  into 
a  rubbish  heap.  The  work  she  was  accom- 
plishing for  Russia  was  second  only  to  that  of 
Peter  the  Great;  and  when  she  is  reproached 


l6a          A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 

for  not  having  done  more  and  for  not  having 
broken  the  chains  forged  by  Boris  upon 
twenty  million  people,  let  it  be  remembered 
that  she  lived  in  the  eighteenth,  and  not  the 
nineteenth,  century;  and  that  at  that  very  time 
Franklin  and  Jefferson  were  framing  a  consti- 
tution which  sanctioned  the  existence  of  ne- 
gro slavery  in  an  ideal  republic! 

A  new  generation  had  grown  up  in  Poland, 
men  not  nobles  nor  serfs,  but  a  race  of 
patriots  familiar  with  the  stirring  litera- 
ture of  their  century.  They  had  seen  their 
land  broken  into  fragments  and  then 
ground  fine  by  a  proud  and  infatuated 
nobility.  They  had  seen  their  pusillani- 
mous kings  one  after  another  yielding 
to  the  insolent  demands  for  their  territory. 
Polish  territory  extended  eastward  into  the 
Ukraine;  now  that  must  be  cut  off  and 
dropped  into  the  lap  of  Russia.  Another  arm 
extended  north,  separating  Eastern  Prussia 
from  Western.  That  too  must  be  cut  off  and 
fall  to  Prussia.  Then  after  shearing  these  ex- 
tremities, the  Poland  which  was  left  must  not 
only  accept  the  spoliation,  but  co-operate  with 
her  despoilers  in  adopting  under  their  direc- 
tion a  constitution  suited  to  its  new  humilia- 


A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.         163 

tion.  Her  King  was  making  her  the  laugh- 
ing-stock of  Europe — but  before  long  the 
name  Poland  was  to  become  another  name  for 
tragedy.  Kosciusko  had  fought  in  the  War 
of  the  American  Revolution.  When  he  re- 
turned, with  the  badge  of  the  Order  of  the 
Cincinnati  upon  his  breast  and  filled  with 
dreams  of  the  regeneration  of  his  own  land  by 
the  magic  of  this  new  political  freedom,  he 
was  the  chosen  leader  of  the  patriots. 

The  partition  of  Poland  was  not  all  ac- 
complished at  one  time.  It  took  three 
repasts  to  finish  the  banquet  (the  par- 
titions of  1792-1793-1794),  and  then  some 
time  more  was  required  to  sweep  up 
the  fragments  and  to  efface  its  name 
from  the  map  of  Europe.  Kosciusko  and 
his  followers  made  their  last  vain  and  des- 
perate stand  in  1794,  and  when  he  fell  covered 
with  wounds  at  the  battle  of  Kaminski,  Poland 
fell  with  him.  The  Poles  were  to  survive  only; 
as  a  more  or  less  unhappy  element  among 
nations  where  they  were  aliens.  Their  race 
affinities  were  with  Russia,  for  they  were  a 
Slavonic  people;  their  religious  affinities  were 
with  Catholic  Austria;  but  with  Protestant 
Prussia  there  was  not  one  thing  in  common, 


1 64          A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 

and  that  was  the  bitterest  servitude  of  all. 
The  Poles  in  Russia  were  to  some  extent 
autonomous.  They  were  permitted  to  con- 
tinue their  local  governments  under  a  viceroy 
appointed  by  the  Tsar;  their  Slavonic  system 
of  communes  was  not  disturbed,  nor  their 
language  nor  customs.  Still  it  was  only  a 
privileged  servitude  after  all,  and  the  time  was 
coming  when  it  was  to  become  an  unmiti- 
gated one.  But  effaced  as  a  political  sover- 
eignty, Poland  was  to  survive  as  a  nationality 
of  genius.  Her  sons  were  going  to  sing  their 
songs  in  other  lands,  but  Mickiewiz  and  Sien- 
kiewicz  and  Chopin  are  Polish,  not  Russian. 

The  alliance  of  the  three  sovereigns  en- 
gaged in  this  dismemberment  was  about  as 
friendly  as  is  that  of  three  dogs  who  have  run 
down  a  hare  and  are  engaged  in  picking  nice 
morsels  from  its  bones.  If  Russia  was  getting 
more  than  her  share,  the  Turks  would  be  in- 
cited by  Austria  or  Prussia  to  attack  her  in 
the  South;  and  many  times  did  Catherine's 
armies  desert  Poland  to  march  down  and  de- 
fend the  Crimea,  and  her  new  fort  at  Sebas- 
topol,  and  her  fleet  on  the  Black  Sea.  In 
1787,  accompanied  by  her  grandsons,  the 
Grand  Dukes  Alexander  and  Constantine,  she 


A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.          165 

made  that  famous  journey  down  the  Dnieper; 
visited  the  ancient  shrines  about  Kief;  stood 
in  the  picturesque  old  capital  of  Sarai,  on  the 
spot  where  Russian  Grand  Princes  had 
groveled  at  the  feet  of  the  Khans;  and  then 
looked  upon  Sebastopol,  which  marked  the 
limit  of  the  new  frontier  which  she  had 
created. 

The  French  Revolution  caused  a  revulsion 
in  her  political  theories.  She  indulged  in  no 
more  abstractions  about  human  rights,  and 
had  an  antipathy  for  the  new  principles  which 
had  led  to  the  execution  of  the  King  and 
Queen  and  to  such  revolting  horrors.  She 
made  a  holocaust  of  the  literature  she  had  once 
thought  entertaining.  Russians  suspected  of 
liberal  tendencies  were  watched,  and  upon  the 
slightest  pretext  sent  to  Siberia,  and  she  urged 
the  King  of  Sweden  to  head  a  crusade  against 
this  pestilential  democracy,  which  she  would 
help  him  to  sweep  out  of  Europe.  It  was 
Catherine,  in  consultation  with  the  Emperor 
of  Austria,  who  first  talked  of  dismembering 
Turkey  and  creating  out  of  its  own  territory 
a  group  of  neutral  states  lying  between  Eu- 
rope and  the  Ottoman  Empire.  And  Vol- 
taire's dream  of  a  union  of  the  Greek  peoples 


166          A   SHORT  HISTORY  OP  RUSSIA. 

into  an  Hellenic  kingdom  she  improved  upon 
by  a  larger  plan  of  her  own,  by  which  she  was 
to  be  the  conqueror  of  the  Ottoman  Empire, 
while  her  grandson  Constantine,  sitting  on  a 
throne  at  Constantinople,  should  rule  Greeks 
and  Turks  alike  under  a  Russian  protectorate. 
Upon  the  private  life  of  Catherine  there  is 
no  need  to  dwell.  This  is  not  the  biography 
of  a  woman,  but  the  history  of  the  empire  she 
magnificently  ruled  for  thirty-four  years.  It 
is  enough  to  say  she  was  not  better  than  her 
predecessors,  the  Tsaritsas  Elizabeth  and 
Anna.  The  influence  exerted  by  Menschikof 
in  the  reign  of  Catherine  L,  and  Biron  in  that 
of  Anna,  was  to  be  exerted  by  Alexis  Orlof, 
Potemkin,  and  other  favorites  in  this.  Her 
son  Paul,  who  was  apparently  an  object  of 
'dislike,  was  kept  in  humiliating  subordination 
to  the  Orlofs  and  her  other  princely  favorites, 
to  whose  councils  he  was  never  invited. 
Righteousness  and  moral  elevation  did  not 
exist  in  her  character  nor  in  her  reign;  but  for 
political  insight,  breadth  of  statesmanship,  and 
a  powerful  grasp  upon  the  enormous  problems 
in  her  heterogeneous  empire,  she  is  entitled  to 
rank  with  the  few  sovereigns  who  are  called 
"  Great."  A  German  by  birth,  a  French- 


A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.          167 

« 

woman  by  intellectual  tastes  and  tendencies — 
she  was  above  all  else  a  Russian,  and  bent  all 
the  resources  of  her  powerful  personality  to 
the  enlightenment  and  advancement  of  the 
land  of  her  adoption.  Her  people  were  not 
"  knouted  into  civilization,"  but  invited  and 
drawn  into  it.  Her  touch  was  terribly  firm — 
but  elastic.  She  was  arbitrary,  but  tolerant; 
and  if  her  reign  was  a  despotism,  it  was  a  des- 
potism of  that  broad  type  which  deals  with  the 
sources  of  things,  and  does  not  bear  heavily 
upon  individuals.  The  Empress  Catherine 
died  suddenly  in  1796,  and  Paul  I.  was 
crowned  Emperor  of  Russia. 


CHAPTER   XIX 

NAPOLEON    IN    EUROPE ATTITUDE    OF    RUSSIA 

PAUL  was  forty-one  years  old  when  he  as- 
cended the  throne  he  had  for  twenty  years 
believed  was  rightfully  his.  The  mystery  sur- 
rounding the  death  of  his  father  Peter  III., 
the  humiliations  he  had  suffered  at  his 
mother's  court,  and  what  he  considered  her 
usurpation  of  his  rights — all  these  had  been 
for  years  fermenting  in  his  narrow  brain. 

His  first  act  gave  vent  to  his  long-smoth- 
ered indignation  and  his  suspicions  regard- 
ing his  father's  death.  Peter's  remains  were 
exhumed — placed  beside  those  of  Catherine 
lying  in  state,  to  share  all  the  honors  of  her 
obsequies  and  to  be  entombed  with  her;  while 
Alexis  Orlof,  his  supposed  murderer,  was 
compelled  to  march  beside  the  coffin,  bearing 
his  crown. 

Then  when  Paul  had  abolished  from  the 
official  language  the  words  "  society "  and 
"  citizen,"  which  his  mother  had  delighted  to 
honor — when  he  had  forbidden  the  wearing  of 

168 


A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.          169 

frock-coats,  high  collars,  and  neckties,  and  re- 
fused to  allow  Frenchmen  to  enter  his  terri- 
tory— and  when  he  had  compelled  his  people 
to  get  out  of  their  carriages  and  kneel  in  the 
mud  as  he  passed — he  supposed  he  was 
strengthening  the  foundations  of  authority 
which  Catherine  II.  had  loosened. 

To  him  is  attributed  the  famous  saying, 
"  Know  that  the  only  person  of  consideration 
in  Russia  is  the  person  whom  I  address,  and 
he  only  during  the  time  I  am  addressing  him." 
He  was  a  born  despot,  and  his  reforms  con- 
sisted in  a  return  to  Prussian  methods  and  to 
an  Oriental  servility.  The  policy  he  an- 
nounced was  one  of  peace  with  Europe — a 
cessation  of  those  wars  by  which  his  mother 
had  for  thirty-four  years  been  draining  the 
treasury.  He  was  going  to  turn  his  conquests 
toward  the  East;  and  vast  plans,  with  vague 
and  indefinite  outlines,  were  forming  in  the 
narrow  confines  of  his  restless  brain.  But 
these  were  interrupted  by  unexpected  condi- 
tions. 

In  1796  the  military  genius  of  a  young 
man  twenty-seven  years  old  electrified  Europe. 
Napoleon  Bonaparte,  at  the  head  of  a  ragged, 
unpaid  French  army,  overthrew  Northern 


170          A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 

Italy,  and  out  of  the  fragments  created  a 
Cisalpine  Republic.  The  possession  of  the 
Ionian  Isles,  quickly  followed  by  the  oc- 
cupation of  Egypt,  threatened  the  East. 
So  Turkey  and  Russia,  contrary  to  all 
old  traditions,  formed  a  defensive  alliance, 
which  was  quickly  followed  by  an  offensive 
one  between  Russia  and  Austria.  But  the 
tactics  so  successful  against  Poles  and  Turks 
were  unavailing  against  those  employed  by 
the  new  Conqueror.  The  Russian  com- 
mander Suvorov  was  defeated  and  returned  in 
disgrace  to  his  enraged  master  at  St.  Peters- 
burg, who  refused  to  receive  him.  In  1798 
Bonaparte  had  secured  Belgium,  had  com- 
pelled Austria  to  cede  to  him  Lombardy,  also 
to  promise  him  help  in  getting  the  left  bank 
of  the  Rhine  from  the  Germanic  body,  and  to 
acknowledge  his  Cisalpine  Republic. 

The  Emperor  Paul's  feelings  underwent  a 
swift  change.  He  was  blinded  by  the  glory 
of  Napoleon's  conquests  and  pleased  with  his 
despotic  methods.  He  conceived  not  only  a 
friendship  but  a  passion  for  the  man  who 
could  accomplish  such  things.  Austria  and 
England  had  both  offended  him,  so  he  readily 
fell  into  a  plan  for  a  Franco-Russian  under- 


A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.          171 

standing  for  mutual  benefit,  from  which  there 
developed  a  larger  plan. 

The  object  of  this  was  the  overthrow  of 
British  dominion  in  India.  Paul  was  to  move 
with  a  large  army  into  Hindostan,  there  to  be 
joined  by  a  French  army  from  Egypt;  thert 
they  would  together  sweep  through  the  coun- 
try of  the  Great  Mogul,  gathering  up  the 
English  settlements  by  the  way  and  so  placat- 
ing the  native  population  and  Princes  that 
they  would  join  them  in  the  liberation  of  their 
country  from  English  tyranny  and  usurpation. 
Paul  said  in  his  manifesto  to  the  army  that 
the  Great  Mogul  and  the  Sovereign  Princes 
were  to  be  undisturbed;  nothing  was  to  be 
attacked  but  the  commercial  establishments 
acquired  by  money  and  used  to  oppress  and 
to  enslave  India.  At  the  same  time  he  said 
to  his  army,  "  The  treasures  of  the  Indies  shall 
be  your  recompense,"  failing  to  state  how 
these  treasures  were  to  be  obtained  without 
disturbing  the  Sovereign  Princes. 

It  is  known  that  Napoleon  had  plans  of  an 
empire  in  the  East,  and  it  is  also  known  that 
some  compact  of  this  kind  did  exist  between 
him  and  the  Emperor  Paul.  In  1801  eleven 
regiments  of  Cossacks,  the  vanguard  of  the 


17*          A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 

army  which  was  to  follow,  had  started  upon 
the  great  undertaking,  when  news  was 
received  that  the  Emperor  Paul  I.  was 
dead. 

The  unbalanced  course  pursued  by  the 
Tsar,  his  unwise  reforms,  and  his  capricious 
policy  had  not  only  alienated  everyone,  but 
caused  serious  apprehensions  for  the  safety  of 
the  empire.  He  had  arrayed  himself  against 
his  wife  and  his  children;  had  threatened  to 
disinherit  Alexander,  his  oldest  son  and  heir, 
whom  he  especially  hated.  A  plot  was  formed 
to  compel  his  abdication.  To  that  extent  his 
sons  Alexander  and  Constantine  were  aware 
of  and  party  to  it. 

On  the  night  of  the  23d  of  March,  1801,  the 
conspirators  entered  Paul's  sleeping  apart- 
ment after  he  had  retired,  and,  sword  in  hand, 
presented  the  abdication  for  him  to  sign. 
There  was  a  struggle  in  which  the  lamp  was 
overturned,  and  in  the  darkness  the  Tsar, 
who  had  fallen  upon  the  floor,  was  strangled 
with  an  officer's  scarf. 

On  the  24th  of  March,  1801,  Alexander, 
who  was  entirely  innocent  of  complicity  in 
this  crime,  was  proclaimed  Emperor  of  Rus- 
sia. 


A  SHORT  HISTORY  OP  RUSSIA.          173 

It  is  said  that  when  Bonaparte  saw  the 
downfall  of  his  vast  design,  he  could  not  con- 
tain his  rage;  and  pointing  to  England  as  the 
instigator  of  the  deed,  he  said  in  the  Moniteur: 
"  It  is  for  history  to  clear  up  the  secret  of  this 
tragedy,  and  to  say  what  national  policy  was 
interested  in  such  a  catastrophe!  " 

The  Emperor  Paul  had  an  acute,  although 
narrow,  intelligence,  and  was  not  without 
generous  impulses.  But  although  he  some- 
times made  impetuous  reparation  for  injury, 
although  he  recalled  exiles  from  Siberia  and 
gave  to  Kosciusko  and  other  patriots  their 
freedom,  unless  his  kindness  was  properly  met 
the  reaction  toward  severity  was  excessive. 
A  little  leaven  of  good  with  much  that  is  evil 
sometimes  creates  a  very  explosive  mixture, 
and  converts  what  would  be  a  mild,  even 
tyranny  into  a  vindictive  and  revengeful  one. 
When  we  behold  the  traits  exhibited  dur- 
ing this  brief  reign  of  five  years,  we  are 
not  surprised  at  Catherine's  unwillingness  to 
resign  to  her  son  the  empire  for  which  she  had 
done  so  much;  and  we  are  inclined  to  believe 
it  is  true  that  there  was,  as  has  been  rumored, 
a  will  left  by  the  Empress  naming  as  her 
heir  the  grandson  whom  she  had  carefully 


174          A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 

prepared  to  be  her  successor,  and  that  this 
paper  was  destroyed  by  the  conspirators. 

There  is  one  wise  act  to  record  in  the  reign 
of  Paul — although  it  was  probably  prompted 
not  by  a  desire  to  benefit  the  future  so  much 
as  to  reverse  the  past.  Peter  the  Great,  proba- 
bly on  account  of  his  perverse  son  Alexis,  had 
set  aside  the  principle  of  primogeniture;  a  prin- 
ciple not  Slavonic,  but  established  by  the  Mus- 
covite Princes.  Peter,  the  ruthless  reformer, 
placed  in  the  hands  of  the  sovereign  the 
power  to  choose  his  own  successor.  Paul  re- 
established this  principle,  and  thereby  bestowed 
a  great  benefit  upon  Russia. 


CHAPTER   XX 

NAPOLEON    IN    RUSSIA — HOLY    ALLIANCE 

A  YOUTH  of  twenty-five  years  was  Tsar  and 
Autocrat  of  All  the  Russias.  Alexander  had 
from  his  birth  been  withdrawn  entirely  from 
his  father's  influence.  The  tutor  chosen  by 
his  grandmother  was  Laharpe,  a  Swiss  Re- 
publican, and  the  principles  of  political  free- 
dom were  at  the  foundation  of  his  training. 
It  was  of  course  during  the  period  of  her  own 
liberal  tendencies  that  Alexander  was  imbued 
with  the  advanced  theories  which  had  cap- 
tured intellectual  Europe  in  the  days  before 
the  French  Revolution.  The  new  Emperor 
declared  in  a  manifesto  that  his  reign  should 
be  inspired  by  the  aims  and  principles  of 
Catherine  II.  He  then  quickly  freed  him- 
self from  the  conspirators  who  had  murdered 
his  father,  and  drew  about  him  a  group  of 
young  men  like  himself,  utterly  inexperienced, 
but  enthusiastic  dreamers  of  a  reign  of  good- 
will which  should  regenerate  Russia.  With 
the  utmost  confidence,  reforms  of  the  most 
radical  nature  were  proposed  and  discussed. 
There  was  to  be  a  gradual  emancipation  of  the 
175 


176          A  SHORT  HISTORY  OP  RUSSIA. 

serfs,  and  misery  of  all  sorts  to  be  lifted  from 
the  land  by  a  new  and  benign  system  of  gov- 
ernment which  should  be  representative  and 
constitutional.  Many  changes  were  at  once 
instituted.  The  old  system  of  "  colleges,"  or 
departments,  established  by  Peter  the  Great 
was  removed  and  a  group  of  ministers  after 
the  European  custom  constituted  the  Tsar's 
official  household,  or  what  would  once  have 
been  called  his  Drujina.  In  the  very  first 
year  of  this  reign  there  began  an  accession  of 
territory  in  Asia,  which  gravitated  as  if  by 
natural  law  toward  the  huge  mass.  The  pic- 
turesque old  kingdom  of  Georgia,  lying  south 
of  the  Caucasus  between  the  Black  and  Cas- 
pian seas,  was  the  home  of  that  fair  and  gifted 
race  which,  fallen  from  its  high  estate,  had 
become  the  victim  of  the  Turks,  and,  with  its 
congener  Circassia,  had  long  provided  the 
harems  of  the  Ottoman  Empire  with  beautiful 
slaves.  The  Georgians  had  often  appealed  to 
the  Tsars  for  protection,  and  in  1810  the 
treaty  was  signed  which  incorporated  the  suf- 
fering kingdom  with  Russia. 

A  portion  of  the  state  passed  to  Russia  in 
1 80 1,  at  the  commencement  of  Alexander '» 
reign;  but  the  formal  surrender  of  the  whole 
by  treaty  was  not  until  1810. 


A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.          177 

So  day  by  day,  while  the  young  Emperor 
and  his  friends  were  living  in  their  pleasant 
Utopia,  Russia,  with  all  its  incoherent  ele- 
ments, with  its  vast  energies,  its  vast  riches, 
and  its  vast  miseries,  was  expanding  and  as- 
suming a  more  dominating  position  in  Eu- 
rope. What  would  be  done  at  St.  Petersburg, 
was  the  question  of  supreme  importance;  and 
Alexander  was  being  importuned  to  join  the 
coalition  against  the  common  enemy  Bona- 
parte. 

The  night  before  the  2d  of  October,  1805, 
the  Russian  Emperor  and  his  young  officers, 
as  confident  of  victory  as  they  were  of  their 
ability  to  reconstruct  Russia,  were  impatiently 
waiting  for  the  morrow,  and  the  conflict  at 
Austerlitz.  With  a  ridiculous  assurance  the 
young  Alexander  sent  by  the  young  Prince 
Dolgoruki  a  note  addressed — not  to  the  Em- 
peror— but  to  the  "  Head  of  the  French 
Nation,"  stating  his  demands  for  the  abandon- 
ment of  Italy  and  immediate  peace!  Before 
sundown  the  next  day  the  "  Battle  of  the 
Three  Emperors  "  had  been  fought;  the  Rus- 
sian army  was  scattered  after  frightful  loss, 
and  Alexander,  attended  by  an  orderly  and 
two  Cossacks,  was  galloping  away  as  fast  as 
his  horse  could  carry  him.  Then  Napoleon 


178          A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 

was  in  Vienna — Francis  II. at  his  bidding  took 
off  his  imperial  crown — the  "  Confederation 
of  the  Rhine  "  was  formed  out  of  Germanic 
States;  and  then  the  terrible  and  invincible 
man  turned  toward  Prussia,  defeated  a  Rus- 
sian army  which  came  to  its  rescue,  and  in 
1806  was  in  Berlin — master  and  arbiter  of 
Europe! 

Alexander,  the  romantic  champion  of  right 
and  justice,  the  dreamer  of  ideal  dreams,  had 
been  carried  by  the  whirlpool  of  events  into 
currents  too  strong  for  him.  He  stood  alone 
on  the  continent  of  Europe  face  to  face  with 
the  man  who  was  subjugating  it.  His  army 
was  broken  in  pieces,  and  perhaps  an  invasion 
of  his  own  empire  was  at  hand.  Should  he 
make  terms  with  this  man  whose  career  had 
so  revolted  him? — or  should  he  defy  him  and 
accept  the  risk  of  an  invasion,  which,  by  offer- 
ing freedom  to  the  serfs  and  independence  to 
the  Poles,  might  give  the  invader  the  imme- 
diate support  of  millions  of  his  own  subjects? 
Then  added  to  the  conflict  with  his  old  selfz 
there  was  the  irresistible  magic  of  Napoleon's 
personal  influence.  A  two-hours'  interview 
on  the  raft  at  Tilsit — June  25,  1807 — changed 
the  whole  direction  of  Alexander's  policy,  and 


A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.          179 

made  him  an  ally  of  the  despot  he  had  de- 
tested, whom  he  now  joined  in  determining 
the  fate  of  Europe.  Together  they  decided 
who  should  occupy  thrones  and  who  should 
not;  to  whom  there  should  be  recompense, 
and  who  should  be  despoiled;  and  the  Em- 
peror of  Russia  consented  to  join  the  Empe- 
ror of  the  French  in  a  war  upon  the  com- 
mercial prosperity  of  England — his  old  friend 
and  ally — by  means  of  a  continental  blockade. 

Times  were  changed.  It  was  not  so  long 
ago — just  one  hundred  years — since  Peter  the 
Great  had  opened  one  small  window  for  the 
light  from  civilized  Europe  to  glimmer 
through;  and  now  the  Tsar  of  that  same  Rus- 
sia, in  a  two-hours'  interview  on  a  raft,  was 
deciding  what  should  be  the  fate  of  Europe! 

The  Emperor's  young  companions,  with 
small  experience  and  lofty  aims,  were  keenly 
disappointed  in  him.  This  alliance  was  in 
contravention  of  all  their  ideals.  He  began 
to  grow  distrustful  and  cold  toward  them, 
leaning  entirely  upon  Speranski,  his  prime 
minister,  who  was  French  in  his  sympathies 
and  a  profound  admirer  of  Napoleon.  Alex- 
ander, no  less  zealous  for  reforms  than  before, 
hurt  at  the  lefection  of  his  friends  and  trying 


l8o          A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 

to  justify  himself  to  himself,  said  "  Does  not 
this  man  represent  the  new  forces  in  conflict 
with  the  old?  "  But  he  was  not  at  ease.  He 
and  his  minister  worked  laboriously;  a  system- 
atic plan  of  reform  was  prepared.  Speranski 
considered  the  Code  Napoleon  the  model  of 
all  progressive  legislation.  Its  adoption  was 
desired,  but  it  was  suited  only  to  a  homogen- 
eous people;  it  was  a  modern  garment  and  not 
to  be  worn  by  a  nation  in  which  feudalism 
lingered,  in  which  there  was  not  a  perfect 
equality  before  the  law;  hence  the  emancipa- 
tion of  the  serfs  must  be  the  corner-stone  of 
the  new  structure.  The  difficulties  grew  larger 
as  they  were  approached.  He  had  disappointed 
the  friends  of  his  youth,  had  displeased  his 
nobility,  and  a  general  feeling  of  irritation 
prevailed  upon  finding  themselves  involved 
by  the  Franco-Russian  alliance  in  wars  with 
England,  Austria,  and  Sweden,  and  the  pros- 
perity of  the  empire  seriously  impaired  by  the 
continental  blockade.  But  when  Bonaparte 
began  to  show  scant  courtesy  to  his  Russian 
ally,  and  to  act  as  if  he  were  his  master,  then 
Alexander's  disenchantment  was  complete. 
He  freed  himself  from  the  unnatural  alliance, 
and  faced  the  inevitable  consequences, 


A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.          i8r 

Napoleon,  also  glad  to  be  freed  from  a  sen- 
timental friendship  not  at  all  to  his  taste,  pre- 
pared to  carry  out  his  long-contemplated  de- 
sign. In  July  of  1812,  by  way  of  Poland,  he 
entered  Russia  with  an  army  of  over  678,000 
souls.  It  was  a  human  avalanche  collected 
mainly  from  the  people  he  had  conquered, 
with  which  he  intended  to  overwhelm  the 
Russian  Empire.  It  was  of  little  consequence 
that  thirty  or  forty  thousand  fell  as  this  or  that 
town  was  captured  by  the  way.  He  had  ex- 
pected victory  to  be  costly,  and  on  he  pressed 
with  diminished  numbers  toward  Moscow, 
armies  retreating  and  villages  burning  before 
him.  If  St.  Petersburg  was  the  brain  of  Rus- 
sia, Moscow — Moscow  the  Holy — was  its 
heart!  What  should  they  do?  Should  they 
lure  the  French  army  on  to  its  destruction 
and  then  burn  and  retreat?  or  should  they 
there  take  their  stand  and  sacrifice  the  last 
army  of  Russia  to  save  Moscow?  With 
tears  streaming  down  their  cheeks  they 
yielded  to  the  words  of  Kutuzof,  who  said: 
"  When  it  becomes  a  matter  of  the  salvation 
of  Russia,  Moscow  is  only  a  city  like  any 
other.  Let  us  retreat."  The  archives  and 
treasures  of  the  churches  and  palaces  were 


l8a          A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 

carried  to  Valdimir,  such  as  could  of  the 
people  following  them,  and  the  city  was  left 
to  its  fate. 

On  September  the  I4th,  1812,  the  French 
troops  defiled  through  the  streets  of  Moscow 
singing  the  Marseillaise,  and  Napoleon  estab- 
lished himself  in  the  ancient  palace  of  the 
Ivans  within  the  walls  of  the  Kremlin.  The 
torches  had  been  distributed,  and  were  in  the 
hands  of  the  Muscovites.  The  stores  of 
brandy,  and  boats  loaded  with  alcohol,  were 
simultaneously  ignited,  and  a  fierce  confla- 
gration like  a  sea  of  flame  raged  below  the 
Kremlin.  Napoleon,  compelled  to  force  his 
way  through  these  volcanic  fires  himself,  nar- 
rowly escaped. 

For  five  days  they  continued,  devouring 
supplies  and  everything  upon  which  the  army 
had  depended  for  shelter  and  subsistence. 
For  thirty-five  days  more  they  waited  among 
the  blackened  ruins.  All  was  over  with  the 
French  conquest.  The  troops  were  eating 
their  horses,  and  thousands  were  already 
perishing  with  hunger.  Then  the  elements 
began  to  fight  for  Russia — the  snow-flakes 
came,  then  the  bitter  polar  winds,  cutting  like 
a  razor;  and  a  winding  sheet  of  snow  envel- 


A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.          i8j 

oped  the  land.  On  the  i3th  of  October,  after 
lighting  a  mine  under  the  Kremlin,  with  sullen 
rage  the  French  troops  marched  out  of  Mos- 
cow. The  Great  Tower  of  Ivan  erected 
by  Boris  was  cracked  and  some  portions  of 
palaces  and  gateways  destroyed  by  this  vic- 
ious and  useless  act  of  revenge. 

Then,  instead  of  marching  upon  St.  Peters- 
burg as  he  had  expected,  Napoleon  escaped 
alone  to  the  frontier,  leaving  his  perishing 
wreck  of  an  army  to  get  back  as  it  could. 
The  peasantry,  the  muzhiks,  whom  the  Rus- 
sians had  feared  to  trust — infuriated  by  the 
destruction  of  their  homes,  committed  awful 
atrocities  upon  the  starving,  freezing  soldiers,, 
who,  maddened  by  cold  and  hunger  and  by 
the  singing  in  their  ears  of  the  rarefied  air,, 
many  of  them  leaped  into  the  bivouac  fires. 
It  was  a  colossal  tragedy.  Of  the  678,000 
soldiers  only  80,000  ever  returned. 

The  extinction  of  the  grand  army  of  inva- 
sion was  complete.  But  in  the  following  year, 
with  another  great  army,  the  indomitable 
Napoleon  was  conducting  a  campaign  in  Ger- 
many which  ended  with  the  final  defeat  at 
Leipzig — then  the  march  upon  Paris — and  in 
March,  1814,  Alexander  at  the  head  of  the 


184          A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 

Allies  was  in  the  French  capital,  dictating  the 
terms  of  surrender.  This  young  man  had 
played  the  most  brilliant  part  in  the  great 
drama  of  Liberation.  He  was  hailed  as  a 
Deliverer,  and  exerted  a  more  powerful  in- 
fluence than  any  of  the  other  sovereigns,  in 
the  long  period  required  for  rearranging 
Europe  after  the  passing  of  Napoleon — the 
disturber  of  the  peace  of  the  world. 

In  1809  Sweden  had  surrendered  to  Russia 
Finland,  which  had  belonged  to  that  country 
for  six  centuries.  The  kindly-intentioned 
Alexander  conceded  to  the  Finns  many  privi- 
leges similar  to  those  enjoyed  by  Poland, 
which  until  recent  years  have  not  been 
seriously  interfered  with.  He  guaranteed 
to  them  a  Diet,  a  separate  army,  and  the 
continuance  of  their  own  language  and  cus- 
toms. A  ukase  just  issued  by  the  present 
emperor  seriously  invades  these  privileges, 
and  a  forcible  Russification  of  Finland  threat- 
ens to  bring  a  wave  of  Finnish  emigration  to 
America  (1899). 

When  the  Emperor  Alexander  returned 
after  the  Treaty  of  Paris  he  was  thirty-four 
years  old.  Many  of  the  illusions  of  his  youth 
had  faded.  His  marriage  with  Elizabeth  of 


A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.          18$ 

Baden  was  unhappy.  His  plans  for  reform 
had  not  been  understood  by  the  people  whom 
they  were  intended  to  benefit.  He  had 
yielded  finally  to  the  demands  of  his  angry 
nobility,  had  dismissed  his  liberal  adviser 
Speranski  and  substituted  Araktcheef,  an 
intolerant,  reactionary  leader.  He  grew 
morose,  gloomy,  and  suspicious,  and  a 
reign  of  extreme  severity  under  Araktcheef 
commenced.  In  1819  he  consented  to 
join  in  a  league  with  Austria  and  Prus- 
sia for  the  purpose  of  suppressing  the 
very  tendencies  he  himself  had  once  pro- 
moted. The  League  was  called  the  "  Holy 
Alliance,"  and  its  object  was  to  reinstate  the 
principle  of  the  divine  right  of  Kings  and  to 
destroy  democratic  tendencies  in  the  germ. 
Araktcheef's  severities,  directed  against  the 
lower  classes  and  the  peasantry,  produced 
more  serious  disorders  than  had  yet  devel- 
oped. There  were  popular  uprisings,  and  in 
1823  at  Kief  there  was  held  secretly  a  conven- 
tion at  which  the  people  were  told  that  "  the 
obstacle  to  their  liberties  was  the  Romanoff 
dynasty.  They  must  shrink  from  nothing — 
not  from  the  murder  of  the  Emperor,  nor  the 
extermination  of  the  Imperial  family."  The 


i86         A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 

peasants  were  promised  freedom  if  they  would 
join  in  the  plot,  and  a  definite  time  was  pro- 
posed for  the  assassination  of  Alexander  when 
he  should  inspect  the  troops  in  the  Ukraine  in 
1824. 

When  the  Tsar  heard  of  this  conspiracy  in 
the  South  he  exclaimed:  "Ah,  the  monsters! 
And  I  planned  for  nothing  but  their  happi- 
ness! "  He  brooded  over  his  lost  illusions 
and  his  father's  assassination.  His  health 
became  seriously  disordered,  and  he  was  ad- 
vised to  go  to  the  South  for  change  of  climate. 
At  Taganrog,  on  the  ist  of  December,  1825, 
he  suddenly  expired.  Almost  his  last  words 
were:  "  They  may  say  of  me  what  they  will, 
but  I  have  lived  and  shall  die  republican."  A 
statement  difficult  to  accept,  regarding  a 
man  who  helped  to  create  the  "  Holy  Alli- 
ance." 


CHAPTER    XXI 

RUSSIA    ORIENTALIZED EASTERN    QUESTION 

As  Alexander  left  no  sons,  by  the  law  of 
primogeniture  his  brother  Constantine,  the 
next  oldest  in  the  family  of  Paul  L,  should 
have  been  his  successor.  But  Constantine 
had  already  privately  renounced  the  throne 
in  favor  of  his  brother  Nicholas.  The 
actual  reason  for  this  renunciation  was  the 
Grand  Duke's  deep  attachment  to  a  Polish 
lady  for  whom  he  was  willing  even  to  re- 
linquish a  crown.  The  letter  announcing 
his  intention  contained  these  words:  "  Be- 
ing conscious  that  I  have  neither  genius, 
talents,  nor  energy  necessary  for  my  ele- 
vation, I  beg  your  Imperial  Majesty  to  trans- 
fer this  right  to  my  brother  Nicholas,  the 
next  in  succession."  The  document  accept- 
ing the  renunciation  and  acknowledging 
Nicholas  as  his  successor  was  safely  deposited 
by  Alexander,  its  existence  remaining  a  pro- 
found secret  even  to  Nicholas  himself. 

At  the  time  of  the  Emperor's  death  Con- 


188          A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 

stantine,  who  was  Viceroy  of  Poland,  was  re- 
siding at  Cracow.  Nicholas,  unaware  of  the 
circumstances,  immediately  took  the  oath  of 
allegiance  to  his  brother  and  also  adminis- 
tered it  to  the  troops  at  St.  Petersburg.  It 
required  some  time  for  Constantine's  letter  to 
arrive,  stating  his  immovable  determination 
to  abide  by  the  decision  which  would  be 
found  in  his  letter  to  the  late  Emperor.  There 
followed  a  contest  of  generosity — Nicholas 
urging  and  protesting,  and  his  brother  re- 
fusing the  elevation.  Three  weeks  passed — 
weeks  of  disastrous  uncertainty — with  no 
acknowledged  head  to  the  Empire. 

Such  an  opportunity  was  not  to  be  neg- 
lected by  the  revolutionists  in  the  South  nor 
their  co-workers  in  the  North.  Pestel,  the 
leader,  had  long  been  organizing  his  recruits, 
and  St.  Petersburg  and  Moscow  were  the  cen- 
ters of  secret  political  societies.  The  time  for 
action  had  unexpectedly  come.  There  must 
be  a  swift  overturning:  the  entire  imperial 
family  must  be  destroyed,  and  the  Senate 
and  Holy  Synod  must  be  compelled  to  adopt 
the  Constitution  which  had  been  prepared. 

The  hour  appointed  for  the  beginning  of 
this  direful  programme  was  the  day  when  the 


A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.          189 

senators  and  the  troops  should  assemble  to 
take  the  oath  of  allegiance  to  Nicholas.  The 
soldiers,  who  knew  nothing  of  the  plot,  were 
incited  to  refuse  to  take  the  oath  on  the 
ground  that  Constantine's  resignation  was 
false,  and  that  he  was  a  prisoner  and  in  chains. 
Constantine  was  their  friend  and  going  to  in- 
crease their  pay.  One  Moscow  regiment 
openly  shouted:  "  Long  life  to  Constantine!  " 
and  when  a  few  conspirators  cried  "  Long  live 
the  Constitution!"  the  soldiers  asked  if  that 
was  Constantine's  wife.  So  the  ostensible 
cause  of  the  revolt,  which  soon  became  gen- 
eral, was  a  fidelity  to  their  rightful  Emperor, 
who  was  being  illegally  deposed.  Under  this 
mask  worked  Pestel  and  his  co-conspirators, 
composed  in  large  measure  of  men  of  high 
intelligence  and  standing,  including  even 
government  officials  and  members  of  the  aris- 
tocracy. 

A  few  days  were  sufficient  to  overcome  this 
abortive  attempt  at  revolution  in  Russia, 
Pestel,  when  he  heard  his  death  sentence,  said, 
"  My  greatest  error  is  that  I  tried  to  gather 
the  harvest  before  sowing  the  seed ";  and 
Ruileef,  "  I  knew  this  enterprise  would  be  my 
destruction — but  could  no  longer  endure  the 


190          A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 

sight  of  my  country's  anguish  under  despot- 
ism." When  we  think  of  the  magnitude  of 
the  offense,  the  monstrous  crime  which  was 
contemplated;  and  when  we  remember  that 
Nicholas  was  by  nature  the  very  incarnation 
of  unrestrained  authority,  the  punishment 
seems  comparatively  light.  There  was  no 
vindictiveness,  no  wholesale  slaughter.  Five 
leaders  were  deliberately  and  ignominiously 
hanged,  and  hundreds  of  their  misguided 
followers  and  sympathizers  went  into  per- 
petual exile  in  Siberia — there  to  expiate 
the  folly  of  supposing  that  a  handful 
of  inexperienced  enthusiasts  and  doctri- 
naires could  in  their  studies  create  new 
and  ideal  conditions,  and  build  up  with 
one  hand  while  they  were  recklessly  destroy- 
ing with  the  other.  Their  aims  were  the 
abolition  of  serfdom,  the  destruction  of  all  ex- 
isting institutions,  and  a  perfect  equality  un- 
der a  constitutional  government.  They  were 
definite  and  sweeping — and  so  were  the 
means  for  accomplishing  them.  Their  be- 
nign government  was  going  to  rest  upon 
crime  and  violence.  We  should  call  these 
men  Nihilists  now.  There  were  among  them 
writers  and  thinkers,  noble  souls  which,  un- 


A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.          191 

der  the  stress  of  oppression  and  sympathy, 
had  gone  astray.  They  had  failed,  but  they 
had  proved  that  there  were  men  in  Russia  ca- 
pable of  dying-  for  an  ideal.  When  the  cause 
had  its  martyrs  it  had  become  sacred — and 
though  it  might  sleep,  it  would  not  die. 

The  man  sitting  upon  the  throne  of  Russia 
now  was  not  torn  by  conflicts  between  his 
ideals  and  inexorable  circumstance.  His 
natural  instincts  and  the  conditions  of  his  em- 
pire both  pointed  to  the  same  simple  course — 
an  unmitigated  autocracy — an  absolute  rule 
supported  by  military  power.  Instead  of 
opening  wider  the  doors  leading  into  Europe, 
he  intended  to  close  them,  and  if  necessary 
even  to  lock  them.  Instead  of  encouraging 
his  people  to  be  more  European,  he  was  go- 
ing to  be  the  champion  of  a  new  Pan-Slavism 
and  to  strive  to  intensify  the  Russian  national 
traits.  The  time  had  come  for  this  great  em- 
pire to  turn  its  face  away  from  the  West  and 
toward  the  East,  where  its  true  interests  were. 
Such  a  plan  may  not  have  been  formulated  by 
Nicholas,  but  such  were  the  policies  instinc- 
tively pursued  from  the  beginning  of  his  reign 
to  its  close. 

Such  an  attitude  naturally  brought  him  at 


192          A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 

once  into  conflict  with  Turkey,  with  which 
country  he  was  almost  immediately  at  war. 
Of  course  no  one  suspected  him  of  sentimen- 
tal sympathy  when  he  espoused  the  cause  of 
Greece  in  the  picturesque  struggle  with  the 
Turks  which  brought  Western  Europe  at  last 
to  her  rescue.  It  was  only  a  part  of  a  much 
larger  plan,  and  when  Nicholas  had  pro- 
claimed himself  the  Protector  of  the  Ortho- 
dox Christians  in  the  East,  he  had  placed  him- 
self in  a  relation  to  the  Eastern  Question 
which  could  be  held  by  no  other  sovereign  in 
Europe;  for  persecuted  Christians  in  the  East 
were  not  Catholic  but  Orthodox;  and  was  not 
he  the  head  of  the  Orthodox  Church?  It  was 
to  secure  this  first  move  in  the  game  of  diplo- 
macy that  Russia  joined  England  and  France, 
and  placed  the  struggling  little  state  of  Greece 
upon  its  feet  in  1832. 

But  the  conditions  in  Western  Europe  were 
unfavorable  to  the  tranquil  pursuit  of  auto- 
cratic ends.  Charles  X.  had  presumed  too  far 
upon  the  patient  submission  of  the  French 
people.  In  1830  Paris  was  in  a  state  of  insur- 
rection; Charles,  the  last  of  the  Bourbons,  had 
abdicated;  and  Louis  Philippe,  under  a  new 
liberal  Constitution  approved  by  tJie  people, 


A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.          193 

was  King  of  the  French.  The  indignation  of 
Nicholas  at  this  overturning  was  still  greater 
when  the  epidemic  of  revolt  spread  to  Bel- 
gium and  to  Italy,  and  then  leaped,  as  such 
epidemics  will,  across  the  intervening  space 
to  Russian  Poland.  The  surface  calm  in  that 
unhappy  state  ruled  by  the  Grand  Duke  Con- 
stantine  swiftly  vanished  and  revealed  an  en- 
tire people  waiting  for  the  day  when,  at  any 
cost,  they  might  make  one  more  stand  for 
freedom.  The  plan  was  a  desperate  one.  It 
was  to  assassinate  Constantine,  who  had  re- 
linquished a  throne  rather  than  leave  them; 
to  induce  Lithuania,  their  old  ally,  to  join 
them;  and  to  create  an  independent  Polish 
state  which  would  bar  the  Russians  from  en- 
tering Europe. 

In  1831  the  brief  struggle  was  ended,  and 
Europe  had  received  the  historic  announce- 
ment, "  Order  reigns  at  Warsaw."  Not  only 
Warsaw,  but  Poland,  was  at  the  feet  of  the 
Emperor.  Confiscations,  imprisonments,  and 
banishments  to  Siberia  were  the  least  terrible 
of  the  punishments.  Every  germ  of  a  Polish 
nationality  was  destroyed — the  army  and  the 
Diet  effaced,  Russian  systems  of  taxes,  justice, 
and  coinage,  and  the  metric  system  of  weights 


194          A.  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 

and  measures  used  in  Russia  were  introduced, 
— the  Julian  Calendar  superseded  the  one 
adopted  all  over  the  world — the  University  of 
Warsaw  was  carried  to  Moscow,  and  the  Pol- 
ish language  was  prohibited  to  be  taught  in 
the  schools.  Indemnity  and  pardon  were 
offered  to  those  who  abjured  the  Roman 
Catholic  faith,  and  many  were  received  into 
the  bosom  of  the  National  Orthodox  Church; 
those  refusing  this  offer  of  clemency  being 
subjected  to  great  cruelties.  Poland  was  no 
more.  Polish  exiles  were  scattered  all  over 
Europe.  In  France,  Hungary,  Italy,  wher- 
ever there  were  lovers  of  freedom,  there  were 
thousands  of  these  emigrants  without  a  coun- 
try, living  illustrations  of  what  an  unre- 
strained despotism  might  do,  and  everywhere 
intensifying  the  desires  of  patriots  to  achieve 
political  freedom  in  their  own  lands. 

Nicholas,  as  the  chief  representative  of  con- 
servatism in  Europe,  looked  upon  France 
with  especial  aversion.  Paris  was  the  center 
of  these  pernicious  movements  which  period- 
ically shook  Europe  to  its  foundations.  It 
had  overthrown  his  ally  Charles  X.,  and 
had  been  the  direct  cause  of  the  insurrection 
In  Poland  which  had  cost  him  thousands  of 


A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.          19$ 

rubles  and  lives;  and  now  nowhere  else  was 
such  sympathetic  welcome  given  to  the  Polish 
refugees,  thousarfds  of  whom  were  in  the 
French  army.  His  relations  with  Louis  Phi- 
lippe became  strained,  and  he  was  looking 
about  for  an  opportunity  to  manifest  his  ill 
will.  In  the  meantime  he  addressed  himself 
to  what  he  considered  the  reforms  in  his  own 
empire.  He  was  going  to  establish  a  sort  of 
political  quarantine  to  keep  out  European  in- 
fluences. It  was  forbidden  to  send  young 
men  to  Western  universities — the  term  of  ab- 
sence in  foreign  countries  was  limited  to  five 
years  for  nobles,  three  for  Russian  subjects. 
The  Russian  language,  literature,  and  history 
were  to  be  given  prominence  over  all  studies 
in  the  schools.  German  free-thought  was  es- 
pecially disliked  by  him.  His  instincts  were 
not  mistaken,  for  what  the  Encyclopedists  had 
been  to  the  Revolution  of  1789,  the  new 
school  of  thought  in  Germany  would  be  to 
that  of  1848.  So  from  his  point  of  view  he 
was  wise  in  excluding  philosophy  from  the 
universities  and  permitting  it  to  be  taught 
only  by  ecclesiastics. 

The  Khedive  of  Egypt,  who  ruled  under  a 
Turkish  protectorate,  in  1832  was  at  war  with1 


196         A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 

his  master  the  Sultan.  It  suited  the  Emperor 
of  Russia  at  this  time  to  do  the  Sultan  a  kind- 
ness, so  he  joined  him  in  bringing  the  Khe- 
dive to  terms,  and  as  his  reward  received  a 
secret  promise  from  the  Porte  to  close  the 
Dardanelles  in  case  of  war  against  Russia — 
to  permit  no  foreign  warships  to  pass  through 
upon  any  pretext.  There  was  indignation  in 
Europe  when  this  was  known,  and  out  of  the 
whole  imbroglio  there  came  just  what  Nicho- 
las and  his  minister  Nesselrode  had  intended 
— a  joint  protection  of  Turkey  by  the  Great 
Powers,  from  which  France  was  excluded  on 
account  of  her  avowed  sympathy  for  the  Khe- 
dive in  the  recent  troubles. 

The  great  game  of  diplomacy  had  begun. 
Nicholas,  for  the  sake  of  humiliating  France, 
had  allied  himself  with  England,  his  natural 
enemy,  and  had  assumed  the  part  of  Protector 
of  an  Ottoman  integrity  which  he  more  than 
anyone  else  had  tried  to  destroy!  There  were 
to  be  many  strange  roles  played  in  this  East- 
ern drama — many  surprises  for  Christendom; 
and  for  Nicholas  the  surprise  of  a  crushing 
defeat  a  few  years  later  to  which  France  con- 
tributed, possibly  in  retaliation  for  this  hu- 
miliation. 


A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.          197 

The  Ottoman  Empire  had  reached  its 
zenith  in  1550  under  Suleyman  the  Magnifi- 
cent, when,  with  its  eastern  frontier  in  the 
heart  of  Asia,  its  European  frontier  touching 
Russia  and  Austria,  it  held  in  its  grasp  Egypt, 
the  northern  coast  of  Africa,  and  almost  every 
city  famous  in  biblical  and  classical  history. 
Then  commenced  a  decline;  and  when  its  terri- 
ble Janizaries  were  a  source  of  danger  instead 
of  defense,  when  its  own  Sultan  was  com- 
pelled to  destroy  them  in  1826  for  the  protec- 
tion of  his  empire,  it  was  only  a  helpless  mass 
in  the  throes  of  dissolution. 

But  Turkey  as  a  living  and  advancing 
power  was  less  alarming  to  Europe  than 
Turkey  as  a  perishing  one.  Lying  at  the 
gateway  between  the  East  and  the  West,  it 
occupied  the  most  commanding  strategic  po- 
sition in  Europe.  If  that  position  were  held 
by  a  living  instead  of  a  dying  power,  that 
power  would  be  master  of  the  Continent.  No 
one  state  would  ever  be  permitted  by  the  rest 
to  reach  such  an  ascendency;  and  the  next  al- 
ternative of  a  division  of  the  territory  after 
the  manner  of  Poland,  was  fraught  with  al- 
most as  much  danger.  The  only  hope  for  the 
peace  of  Europe  was  to  keep  in  its  integrity 


198          A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 

this  crumbling  wreck  of  a  wicked,  crime- 
stained  old  empire.  Such  was  the  policy  now 
inaugurated  by  Russia,  Great  Britain,  Austria, 
and  Prussia;  and  such  in  brief  is  the  "  Eastern 
Question,"  which  for  more  than  half  a  century 
has  overshadowed  all  others  in  European 
diplomacy,  and  more  than  any  other  has 
strained  the  conscience  and  the  moral  sense  of 
Christian  nations.  We  wish  we  might  say 
that  one  nation  had  been  able  to  resist  this  in- 
vitation to  a  moral  turpitude  masked  by  dip- 
lomatic subterfuges.  But  there  is  not  one. 

Although  the  question  of  the  balance  of 
power  was  of  importance  to  all,  it  was  Eng- 
land and  Russia  to  whom  the  interests  in- 
volved in  the  Eastern  Question  were  most 
vital.  Every  year  which  made  England's 
Indian  Empire  a  more  important  possession 
also  increased  the  necessity  for  her  having  free 
access  to  it;  while  Russian  policy  more  and 
more  revolved  about  an  actual  and  a  potential 
empire  in  the  East.  So  just  because  they 
were  natural  enemies  they  became  allies,  each 
desiring  to  tie  the  other's  hands  by  the  princi- 
ple of  Ottoman  integrity. 

But  daily  and  noiselessly  the  Russian  out- 
posts crept  toward  the  East;  first  into  Persia, 


A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.          199 

then  stretching  out  the  left  hand  toward 
Khiva,  pressing  on  through  Bokhara  into 
Chinese  territory;  and  then,  with  a  prescience 
of  coming  events  which  should  make  Western 
Europe  tremble  before  such  a  subtle  instinct 
for  power,  Russia  obtained  from  the  Chinese 
Emperor  the  privilege  of  establishing  at  Can- 
ton a  school  of  instruction  where  Russian 
youths — prohibited  from  attending  European 
universities — might  learn  the  Chinese  lan- 
guage and  become  familiarized  with  Chinese 
methods!  But  this  was  the  sort  of  instinct 
that  impels  a  glacier  to  creep  surely  toward 
a  lower  level.  Not  content  with  owning  half 
of  Europe  and  all  of  Northern  Asia,  the  Rus- 
sian glacier  was  moving  noiselessly, — as  all 
things  must, — on  the  line  of  least  resistance, 
toward  the  East. 

The  Emperor  Nicholas,  who  compre- 
hended so  well  the  secret  of  imperial  expan- 
sion, and  so  little  understood  the  expanding- 
qualities  within  his  empire,  was  an  impressive 
object  to  look  upon.  With  his  colossal  sta- 
ture and  his  imposing  presence,  always 
tightly  buttoned  in  his  uniform,  he  carried 
with  him  an  air  of  majesty  never  to  be 
forgotten  if  once  it  was  seen.  But  while  he 


200          A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 

supposed  he  was  extinguishing  the  living" 
forces  and  arresting  the  advancing  power  of 
mind  in  his  empire,  a  new  world  was  matur- 
ing beneath  the  smooth  hard  surface  he  had 
created.  The  Russian  intellect,  in  spite  of  all, 
was  blossoming  from  seed  scattered  long  be- 
fore his  time.  There  were  historians,  and 
poets,  and  romanticists,  and  classicists,  just  as 
in  the  rest  of  Europe.  There  were  the  con- 
servative writers  who  felt  contempt  for  the 
West,  and  for  the  new,  and  who  believed 
Russia  was  as  much  better  before  Ivan  III. 
than  after,  as  Ivan  the  Great  was  superior 
to  Peter  the  Great;  and  there  were  Push- 
kin and  Gogol,  and  Koltsof  and  Tur- 
guenief,  whom  they  hated,  because  their 
voice  was  the  voice  of  the  New  Russia. 
Turguenief,  who  with  smothered  sense  of 
Russia's  oppression  was  then  girding  him- 
self for  his  battle  with  serfdom,  says:  "  My 
proof  used  to  come  back  to  me  from  the 
censor  half  erased,  and  stained  with  red  ink 
like  blood.  Ah!  they  were  painful  times!" 
But  in  spite  of  all,  Russian  genius  was  spread- 
ing its  wings,  and  perhaps  from  this  very  re- 
pression was  to  come  that  passionate  intensity 
which  makes  it  so  great. 


CHAPTER   XXII 

1848    IN    EUROPE — CRIMEAN    WAR 

THE  Revolution  of  1831  was  only  the  mild 
precursor  of  the  one  which  shook  Europe  to 
its  foundations  in  1848.  It  had  centers  wher- 
ever there  were  patriots  and  aching  hearts. 
In  Paris,  Louis  Philippe  had  fled  at  the 
sound  of  the  word  Republic,  and  when 
in  Paris  workmen  were  waving  the  national 
banner  of  Poland,  with  awakened  hope, 
even  that  land  was  quivering  with  excite- 
ment. In  Vienna  the  Emperor  Ferdinand, 
unable  to  meet  the  storm,  abdicated  in 
favor  of  his  young  nephew,  Francis  Jo- 
seph. Hungary,  obedient  to  the  voice  of 
her  great  patriot,  Louis  Kossuth,  in  April, 
1849,  declared  itself  free  and  independent.  It 
was  the  Hungarians  who  had  offered  the  most 
encouragement  and  sympathy  to  the  Poles  in 
1831;  so  Nicholas  determined  to  make  them 
feel  the  weight  of  his  hand.  Upon  the  pretext 
that  thousands  of  Polish  exiles — his  sub- 
jects— were  in  the  ranks  of  the  insurgents,  a 


202          A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 

Russian  army  marched  into  Hungary.  By 
the  following  August  the  revolution  was  over 
— thousands  of  Hungarian  patriots  had  died 
for  naught,  thousands  more  had  fled  to 
Turkey,  and  still  other  thousands  were  suffer- 
ing from  Austrian  vengeance  administered  by 
the  terrible  General  Haynau.  Francis  Joseph, 
that  gentle  and  benign  sovereign,  who  sits  to- 
day upon  the  throne  at  Vienna,  subjected 
Hungary  to  more  cruelties  than  had  been 
inflicted  by  Nicholas  in  Poland.  Not  only 
were  the  germs  of  nationality  destroyed — the 
Constitution  and  the  Diet  abolished,  the  na- 
tional language,  church,  and  institutions 
effaced;  but  revolting  cruelties  and  execu- 
tions continued  for  years.  Kossuth,  who 
with  a  few  other  leaders,  was  an  exile  and  a 
prisoner  in  Asia  Minor,  was  freed  by  the  in- 
tervention of  European  sentiment  in  1851. 
The  United  States  government  then  sent  a 
frigate  and  conveyed  him  and  his  friends  to 
America,  where  the  great  Hungarian  thrilled 
the  people  by  the  magic  of  his  eloquence  in 
their  own  language,  which  he  had  mastered 
during  his  imprisonment  by  means  of  a  Bible 
and  a  dictionary. 

It  was  to  Russia  that  Austria  was  indebted 


A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.          203 

for  a  result  so  satisfactory.  The  Emperor 
Nicholas  returned  to  St.  Petersburg,  feeling 
that  he  had  earned  the  everlasting  gratitude 
of  the  young  ruler  Francis  Joseph,  little 
suspecting  that  he  was  before  long  to  say 
of  him  that  "  his  ingratitude  astonished 
Europe." 

There  can  be  no  doubt  that  the  Emperor 
Nicholas,  while  he  was,  in  common  with  the 
other  powers,  professing  to  desire  the  pres- 
ervation of  Ottoman  integrity,  had  secretly 
resolved  not  to  leave  the  Eastern  Question  to 
posterity,  but  to  crown  his  own  reign  by  its 
solution  in  a  way  favorable  to  Russia.  His 
position  was  a  very  strong  one.  By  the 
Treaty  of  1841  his  headship  as  protector  of 
Eastern  Christendom  had  been  acknowl- 
edged. Austria  was  now  bound  to  him 
irrevocably  by  the  tie  of  gratitude,  and  Prus- 
sia by  close  family  ties  and  by  sympathy.  It 
was  only  necessary  to  win  over  England.  In 
1853,  in  a  series  of  private,  informal  interviews 
with  the  English  ambassador,  he  disclosed  his 
plan  that  there  should  be  a  confidential  under- 
standing between  him  and  Her  Majesty's 
government.  He  said  in  substance:  "  Eng- 
land and  Russia  must  be  friends.  Never  was 


204          A  SHORT  HISTORY  OP  RUSSIA. 

the  necessity  greater.  If  we  agree,  I  have  no 
solicitude  about  Europe.  What  others  think 
is  really  of  small  consequence.  I  am  as  de- 
sirous as  you  for  the  continued  existence  of 
the  Turkish  Empire.  But  we  have  on  our 
hands  a  sick  man — a  very  sick  .man :  he  may 
suddenly  die.  Is  it  not  the  part  of  prudence 
for  us  to  come  to  an  understanding  regarding 
what  should  be  done  in  case  of  such  a  catas- 
trophe? It  may  as  well  be  understood  at 
once  that  I  should  never  permit  an  attempt  to 
reconstruct  a  Byzantine  Empire,  and  still  less 
should  I  allow  the  partition  of  Turkey  into 
small  republics — ready-made  asylums  for 
Kossuths  and  Mazzinis  and  European  revo- 
lutionists; and  I  also  tell  you  very  frankly  that 
I  should  never  permit  England  or  any  of  the 
Powers  to  have  a  foothold  in  Constantinople. 
I  am  willing  to  bind  myself  also  not  to  occupy 
it — except,  perhaps,  as  a  guardian.  But  I 
should  have  no  objection  to  your  occupying 
Egypt.  I  quite  understand  its  importance  to 
your  government — and  perhaps  the  island  of 
Candia  might  suit  you.  I  see  no  objection  to 
that  island  becoming  also  an  English  pos- 
session. I  do  not  ask  for  a  treaty- 
only  an  understanding;  between  gen- 


A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.          205 

tlemen  that  is  sufficient.  I  have  no  desire 
to  increase  my  empire.  It  is  large  enough; 
but  I  repeat — the  sick  man  is  dying;  and  if 
we  are  taken  by  surprise,  if  proper  precautions 
are  not  taken  in  advance,  circumstances  may 
arise  which  will  make  it  necessary  for  me  to 
occupy  Constantinople." 

It  was  a  bribe,  followed  by  a  threat.  Eng- 
land coldly  declined  entering  into  any  stipula- 
tions without  the  concurrence  of  the  other 
Powers.  Her  Majesty's  government  could 
not  be  a  party  to  a  confidential  arrangement 
from  which  it  was  to  derive  a  benefit.  The 
negotiations  had  failed.  Nicholas  was  deeply 
incensed  and  disappointed.  He  could  rely, 
however,  upon  Austria  and  Prussia.  He  now 
thought  of  Louis  Napoleon,  the  new  French 
Emperor,  who  was  looking  for  recognition  in 
Europe.  The  English  ambassador  was  coldly 
received,  and  for  the  first  time  since  the  ab- 
dication of  Charles  X.,  the  representative  of 
France  received  a  cordial  greeting,  and 
was  intrusted  with  a  flattering  message  to  the 
Emperor.  But  France  had  not  forgotten  the 
retreat  from  Moscow,  nor  the  presence  of 
Alexander  in  Paris,  nor  her  attempted  ostra- 
cism in  Europe  by  Nicholas  himself;  and,  fur- 


206         A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 

ther,  although  Louis  Napoleon  was  pleased 
with  the  overtures  made  to  win  his  friendship, 
he  was  not  yet  quite  sure  which  cause  would 
best  promote  his  own  ends. 

Fortunately  Russia  had  a  grievance  against 
Turkey.  It  was  a  very  small  one,  but  it  was 
useful,  and  led  to  one  of  the  most  exciting 
crises  in  the  history  of  Europe.  It  was  a 
question  of  the  possession  of  the  Holy  Shrines 
at  Bethlehem  and  other  places  which  tradition 
associates  with  the  birth  and  death  of  Jesus 
Christ;  and  whether  the  Latin  or  the  Greek 
monks  had  the  right  to  the  key  of  the  great 
door  of  the  Church  at  Bethlehem,  and  the 
right  to  place  a  silver  star  over  the  grotto 
where  our  Saviour  was  born.  The  Sultan 
had  failed  to  carry  out  his  promises  in  adjust- 
ing these  disputed  points.  And  all  Europe 
trembled  when  the  great  Prince  Menschikof, 
with  imposing  suite  and  threatening  aspect, 
appeared  at  Constantinople,  demanding  im- 
mediate settlement  of  the  dispute.  Turkey 
was  paralyzed  with  fright,  until  England  sent 
her  great  diplomatist  Lord  Stratford  de  Red- 
cliffe — and  France  hers,  M.  de  Lacour.  No 
simpler  question  was  ever  submitted  to  more 
flistinguished  consideration  or  was  watched 


A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.          207 

with  more  breathless  interest  by  five  sover- 
eigns and  their  cabinets.  In  a  few  days  all 
was  settled — the  questions  of  the  shrines  and 
of  the  possession  of  the  key  of  the  great  door 
of  the  church  at  Bethlehem  were  happily 
adjusted.  There  were  only  a  few  "  business 
details  "  to  arrange,  and  the  episode  would 
be  closed.  But  the  trouble  was  not  over. 
Hidden  away  among  the  "  business  de- 
tails "  was  the  germ  of  a  great  war.  The 
Emperor  of  Russia  "  felt  obliged  to  demand 
guarantees,  formal  and  positive,"  assuring  the 
security  of  the  Greek  Christians  in  the  Sul- 
tan's dominions.  He  had  been  constituted 
the  Protector  of  Christianity  in  the  TurkisK 
Empire,  and  demanded  this  by  virtue  of  that 
authority.  The  Sultan,  strengthened  now  by 
the  presence  of  the  English  and  French  am- 
bassadors, absolutely  refused  to  give  sucH 
guarantee,  appealing  to  the  opinion  of  the 
world  to  sustain  him  in  resisting  such  a  vio- 
lation of  his  independence  and  of  his  rights. 
JCn  vain  did  Lord  Stratford  exchange  notes 
and  conferences  with  Count  Nesselrode  and 
Prince  Menschikof  and  the  Grand  Vizier  and 
exhaust  all  the  arts  and  powers  of  the  most 
skilled  diplomacy.  In  July,  1853,  the  Rus- 


ao8         A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 

sian  troops  had  invaded  Turkish  territory,  and 
a  French  and  English  fleet  soon  after  had 
crossed  the  Dardanelles, — no  longer  closed  to 
the  enemies  of  Russia, — had  steamed  by  Con- 
stantinople, and  was  in  the  Bosphorus. 

Austria  joined  England  and  France  in  a  de- 
fensive though  not  an  offensive  alliance,  and 
Prussia  held  entirely  aloof  from  the  conflict. 

Nicholas  had  failed  in  all  his  calculations. 
In  vain  had  he  tried  to  lure  England  into  a  se- 
cret compact  by  the  offer  of  Egypt — in  vain 
had  he  preserved  Hungary  to  Austria — in  vain 
sought  to  attach  Prussia  to  himself  by  acts 
of  friendship;  and  his  Nemesis  was  pursuing 
him,  avenging  a  long  series  of  affronts  to 
France.  Unsupported  by  a  single  nation,  he 
was  at  war  with  three;  and  after  a  brilliant 
reign  of  twenty-eight  years  unchecked  by  a 
single  misfortune,  he  was  about  to  die,  leaving 
to  his  empire  the  legacy  of  a  disastrous  war, 
which  was  to  end  in  defeat  and  humiliation. 

But  a  strange  thing  had  happened.  For 
a  thousand  years  Europe  had  been  trying  to 
drive  Mohammedanism  out  of  the  continent. 
No  sacrifice  had  been  considered  too  great  if 
it  would  help  to  rid  Christendom  of  that  great 
iniquity.  Now  the  Turkish  Empire, — the 


A  SHORT  HISTORY  OP  RUSSIA.          209 

Spiritual  heir  and  center  of  this  old  enemy, — 
no  less  vicious — no  less  an  offense  to  the  in- 
stincts of  Christendom  than  before,  was  on  the 
brink  of  extermination.  It  would  have  been 
a  surprise  to  Richard  the  lion-hearted,  and  to 
Louis  IX.  the  saint,  if  they  could  have  fore- 
seen what  England  and  France  would  do 
eight  hundred  years  later  when  such  a  crisis 
arrived !  While  the  Sultan  in  the  name  of  the 
Prophet  was  appealing  to  all  the  passions  of 
a  mad  fanaticism  to  arise  and  "  drive  out  the 
foreign  infidels  who  were  assailing  their  holy 
faith  " — there  was  in  England  an  enthusiasm 
for  his  defense  as  splendid  as  if  the  cause  were 
a  righteous  one. 

It  is  not  a  simple  thing  to  carry  a  bark 
deeply  loaded  with  treasure  safely  through 
swift  and  tortuous  currents.  England  was 
loaded  to  the  water's  edge  with  treasure.  Her 
hope  was  in  that  sunken  wreck  of  an  empire 
which  fate  had  moored  at  the  gateway  leading 
to  her  Eastern  dominions,  and  what  she  most 
feared  in  this  world  was  its  removal.  As  a 
matter  of  state  policy,  she  may  have  followed 
the  only  course  which  was  open  to  her;  but 
viewed  from  a  loftier  standpoint,  it  was  a  com- 
promise with  unrighteousness  when  she  joined 


aio         A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 

hands  with  the  "  Great  Assassin  "  and  poured 
out  the  blood  of  her  sons  to  keep  him  un- 
harmed. For  fifty  years  that  compromise  has 
embarrassed  her  policy,  and  still  continues  to 
soil  her  fair  name.  In  the  War  of  the  Crimea, 
England,  no  less  than  Russia,  was  fighting, 
not  for  the  avowed,  but  unavowed  ob- 
ject. But  frankness  is  not  one  of  the  virtues 
required  by  diplomacy,  so  perhaps  of  that  we 
have  no  right  to  complain. 

On  the  4th  of  January,  1854,  the  allied 
fleets  entered  the  Black  Sea.  The  Emperor 
Nicholas,  from  his  palace  in  St.  Petersburg, 
watched  the  progress  of  events.  He  saw 
Menschikof  vainly  measuring  swords  with 
Lord  Raglan  at  Odessa  (April  22);  then  the 
overwhelming  defeat  at  the  Alma  (Septem- 
ber 20);  then  the  sinking  of  the  Russian  fleet 
to  protect  Sebastopol,  about  which  the  battle 
was  to  rage  until  the  end  of  the  war.  He  saw 
the  invincible  courage  of  his  foe  in  that  im- 
mortal act  of  valor,  the  cavalry  charge  at 
Balaklava  (November  5),  in  obedience  to  an 
order  wise  when  it  was  given,  but  useless  and 
fatal  when  it  was  received — of  which  someone 
made  the  oft-repeated  criticism — "  C'est  mag- 
nifique — mais  ce  n'est  pas  la  guerre."  And 


A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.          21 1 

then  he  saw  the  power  to  endure  during  that 
awful  winter,  when  the  elements  and  official 
mismanagement  were  fighting  for  him,  and 
when  more  English  troops  were  perishing 
from  cold  and  neglect  than  had  been  killed  by 
Russian  shot  and  shell. 

But  the  immense  superiority  of  the  armies 
of  the  allies  could  not  be  doubted.  His 
troops,  vanquished  at  every  point,  were  hope- 
lessly beleagured  in  Sebastopol.  The  maj- 
esty of  his  empire  was  on  every  side  insulted, 
his  ports  in  every  sea  blockaded.  Never  be- 
fore had  he  tasted  the  bitterness  of  defeat  and 
humiliation.  Europe  had  bowed  down  be- 
fore him  as  the  Agamemnon  among  Kings. 
He  had  saved  Austria;  had  protected  Prussia; 
he  had  made  France  feel  the  weight  of  his  au- 
gust displeasure.  Wherever  autocracy  had 
been  insulted,  there  he  had  been  its  champion 
and  striven  to  be  its  restorer.  But  ever  since 
1848  there  had  been  something  in  the  air  un- 
suited  to  his  methods.  He  was  the  incarna- 
tion of  an  old  principle  in  a  new  world.  It 
was  time  for  him  to  depart.  His  day  had 
been  a  long  and  splendid  one,  but  it  was  pass- 
ing amid  clouds  and  darkness. 
A  successful  autocrat  is  quite  a  different 


212          A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 

person  from  an  unsuccessful  one.  Nicholas 
had  been  seen  in  the  shining  light  of  invinci- 
bility. But  a  sudden  and  terrible  awakening 
had  come.  The  nation,  stung  by  repeated 
defeats,  was  angry.  A  flood  of  anonymous, 
literature  was  scattered  broadcast,  arraigning 
the  Emperor — the  administration — the  minis- 
ters— the  diplomats — the  generals.  "  Slaves, 
arise ! "  said  one,  "  and  stand  erect  before  the 
despot.  We  have  been  kept  long  enough  in 
serfage  to  the  successors  of  Tatar  Khans." 

The  Tsar  grew  gloomy  and  silent.  "  My 
successor,"  he  said,  "  may  do  what  he  likes. 
I  cannot  change."  When  he  saw  Austria  at 
last  actually  in  alliance  with  his  enemies  he 
was  sorely  shaken.  But  it  was  the  voice  of 
bitter  reproach  and  hatred  from  his  hitherto 
silent  people  which  shook  his  iron  will  and 
broke  his  heart.  He  no  longer  desired  to 
live.  While  suffering  from  an  influenza  he 
insisted  upon  going  out  in  the  intense  cold 
without  his  greatcoat  and  reviewing  his 
guards.  Five  days  later  he  dictated  the  dis- 
patch which  was  sent  to  every  city  in  Russia: 
"  The  Emperor  is  dying." 


CHAPTER   XXIII 

LIBERALISM — EMANCIPATION  OF  SERFS 

WHEN  his  life  and  the  hard-earned  con- 
quests of  centuries  were  together  slipping 
away,  the  dying  Emperor  said  to  his  son:  "  All 
my  care  has  been  to  leave  Russia  safe  without 
and  prosperous  within.  But  you  see  how  it 
is.  I  am  dying,  and  I  leave  you  a  burden 
which  will  be  hard  to  bear."  Alexander  II., 
the  young  man  upon  whom  fell  these  responsi- 
bilities, was  thirty-seven  years  old.  His  mother 
was  Princess  Charlotte  of  Prussia,  sister  of  the 
late  Emperor  William,  who  succeeded  to  the 
throne  of  Prussia,  left  vacant  by  his  brother 
in  1861. 

His  first  words  to  his  people  were  a  passion- 
ate justification  of  his  father, — "  of  blessed 
memory," — his  aims  and  purposes,  and  a 
solemn  declaration  that  he  should  remain  true 
to  his  line  of  conduct,  which  "  God  and  history 
would  vindicate."  It  was  a  man  of  ordinary 
flesh  and  blood  promising  to  act  like  a  man  of 
steel.  His  own  nature  and  the  circumstances 


214          A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 

of  his  realm  both  forbade  it.  The  man  on  the 
throne  could  not  help  listening  attentively  to 
the  voice  of  the  people.  There  must  be  peace. 
The  country  was  drained  of  men  and  of 
money.  There  were  not  enough  peasants  left 
to  till  the  fields.  The  landed  proprietors  with 
their  serfs  in  the  ranks  were  ruined,  and  had 
not  money  with  which  to  pay  the  taxes,  upon 
which  the  prosecution  of  a  hopeless  war  de- 
pended. Victor  Emmanuel  had  joined  the 
allies  with  a  Sardinian  army;  and  the  French, 
by  a  tremendous  onslaught,  had  captured 
Malakof,  the  key  to  the  situation  in  the 
Crimea.  Prince  Gortchakof,  who  had  re- 
placed Prince  Menschikof,  was  only  able  to 
cover  a  retreat  with  a  mantle  of  glory.  The 
end  had  come. 

A  treaty  of  peace  was  signed  March  30, 
1856.  Russia  renounced  the  claim  of  an  ex- 
clusive protectorate  over  the  Turkish  prov- 
inces, yielded  the  free  navigation  of  the 
Danube,  left  Turkey  the  Roumanian  prin- 
cipalities, and,  hardest  of  all,  she  lost  the  con- 
trol of  the  Black  Sea.  Its  waters  were  forbid- 
den to  men-of-war  of  all  nations;  no  arsenals, 
military  or  maritime,  to  exist  upon  its  shores. 
The  fruits  of  Russian  policy  since  Peter  the 


A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.          215 

Great  were  annihilated,  and  the  work  of  two 
centuries  of  progress  was  canceled. 

Who  and  what  was  to  blame  for  these  ca- 
lamities? Why  was  it  that  the  Russian  army 
could  sucessfully  compete  with  Turks  and 
Asiatics,  and  not  with  Europeans?  The 
reason  began  to  be  obvious,  even  to  stubborn 
Russian  Conservatives.  A  nation,  in  order  to 
compete  in  war  in  this  age,  must  have  a  grasp 
upon  the  arts  of  peace.  An  army  drawn  from 
a  civilized  nation  is  a  more  effective  instru- 
ment than  one  drawn  from  a  barbarous  one. 
The  time  had  passed  when  there  might  be  a 
few  highly  educated  and  subtle  intelligences 
thinking  for  millions  of  people  in  brutish 
ignorance.  The  time  had  arrived  when  it 
must  be  recognized  that  Russia  was  not  made 
for  a  few  great  and  powerful  people,  for  whom 
the  rest,  an  undistinguishable  mass,  must  toil 
and  suffer.  In  other  words,  it  must  be  a 
nation — and  not  a  dynasty  nourished  by 
misery  and  supported  by  military  force. 

Men  high  in  rank  no  longer  flaunted  their 
titles  and  insignia  of  office.  They  shrank  from 
drawing  attention  to  their  share  of  responsi- 
bility in  the  great  calamity,  and  listened  al- 
most humbly  to  the  suggestions  of  liberal 


ai6         A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA." 

leaders,  suggestions  which,  a  few  months  ago, 
none  dared  whisper  except  behind  closed 
'doors.  A  new  literature  sprang  into  life,  un- 
rebuked,  dealing  with  questions  of  state  policy 
with  a  fearless  freedom  never  before  dreamed 
of.  Conservative  Russia  had  suddenly  van- 
ished under  a  universal  conviction  that  the 
hope  of  their  nation  was  in  Liberalism. 

The  Emperor  recalled  from  Siberia  the 
exiles  of  the  conspiracy  of  1825,  and  also  the 
Polish  exiles  of  1831.  There  was  an  honest 
effort  made  to  reform  the  wretched  judicial 
system  and  to  adopt  the  methods  which  West- 
ern experience  had  found  were  the  best.  The 
obstructions  to  European  influences  were  re- 
moved, and  all  joined  hands  in  an  effort  to  de- 
vise means  of  bringing  the  whole  people  up  to 
a  higher  standard  of  intelligence  and  well- 
being.  Russia  was  going  to  be  regenerated. 
Men,  in  a  rapture  of  enthusiasm  and  with 
tears,  embraced  each  other  on  the  streets. 
One  wrote:  "The  heart  trembles  with  joy. 
Russia  is  like  a  stranded  ship  which  the  cap- 
tain and  the  crew  are  powerless  to  move;  now 
there  is  to  be  a  rising  tide  of  national  life 
which  will  raise  and  float  it." 

Such  was  the  prevailing  public  sentiment  in 


A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.         217 

1861,  when  Emperor  Alexander  affixed  his 
name  to  the  measure  which  was  going  to  make 
it  forever  glorious — the  emancipation  of  over 
twenty-three  million  human  beings  from  serf- 
dom. It  would  require  another  volume  to  tell 
even  in  outline  the  wrongs  and  sufferings  of 
this  class,  upon  whom  at  last  rested  the  pros- 
perity and  even  the  life  of  the  nation,  who, 
absolutely  subject  to  the  will  of  one  man, 
might  at  his  pleasure  be  conscripted  for  mili- 
tary service  for  a  term  of  from  thirty  to  forty 
years,  or  at  his  displeasure  might  be  sent  to 
Siberia  to  work  in  the  mines  for  life;  and  who, 
in  no  place  or  at  no  time,  had  protection  from 
any  form  of  cruelty  which  the  greed  of  the 
proprietor  imposed  upon  them.  Selling  the 
peasants  without  the  land,  unsanctioned  by 
law,  became  sanctioned  by  custom,  until 
finally  its  right  was  recognized  by  imperial 
ukases,  so  that  serfdom,  which  in  theory  pre- 
sented a  mild  exterior,  was  in  practice  and  in 
fact  a  terrible  and  unmitigated  form  of  hu- 
man slavery. 

Patriarchalism  has  a  benignant  sound — it 
is  better  than  something  that  is  worse!  It  is 
a  step  upward  from  a  darker  quagmire  of  hu- 
man condition.  When  Peter  the  Great,  with 


21 8          A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 

his  terrible  broom,  swept  all  the  free  peasants 
into  the  same  mass  with  the  unfree  serfs,  and 
when  he  established  the  empire  upon  a  chain 
of  service  to  be  rendered  to  the  nobility  by  the 
peasantry,  and  then  to  the  state  by  the  no- 
bility, he  simply  applied  to  the  whole  state  the 
Slavonic  principle  existing  in  the  social  unit 
— the  family.  And  while  he  was  European- 
izing  the  surface,  he  was  completing  a  struc- 
ture of  paternalism,  which  was  Asiatic  and  in- 
compatible with  its  new  garment — an  incon- 
gruity which  in  time  must  bring  disorder, 
and  compel  radical  and  difficult  reforms. 

To  remove  a  foundation  stone  is  a  delicate 
and  difficult  operation.  It  needed  courage  of 
no  ordinary  sort  to  break  up  this  serfdom  en- 
crusted with  tyrannies.  It  was  a  gigantic 
social  experiment,  the  results  of  which  none 
could  foresee.  Alexander's  predecessors  had 
thought  and  talked  of  it,  but  had  not  dared  to 
try  it.  Now  the  time  was  ripe,  and  the  man 
on  the  throne  had  the  nerve  required  for  its 
execution. 

The  means  by  which  this  revolution  was 
effected  may  be  briefly  described  in  a  sen- 
tence. The  Crown  purchased  from  the  pro- 
prietors the  land — with  the  peasants  attached 


A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.          219 

to  it,  and  then  bestowed  the  land  upon  the 
peasants  with  the  condition  that  for  forty- 
five  years  they  should  pay  to  the  Crown  six 
per  cent,  interest  upon  the  amount  paid  by  it 
for  the  land.  It  was  the  commune  or  mir 
which  accepted  the  land  and  assumed  the  obli- 
gation and  the  duty  of  seeing  that  every  indi- 
vidual paid  his  annual  share  of  rental  (or  in- 
terest money)  upon  the  land  within  his  in- 
closure,  which  was  supposed  to  be  sufficient 
for  his  own  maintenance  and  the  payment  of 
the  government  tax. 

These  simple  people,  who  had  been  dream- 
ing of  emancipation  for  years,  as  a  vague 
promise  of  relief  from  sorrow,  heard  with  as- 
tonishment that  now  they  were  expected  to 
pay  for  their  land!  Had  it  not  always  be- 
longed to  them?  The  Slavonic  idea  of 
ownership  of  land  through  labor  was  the  only 
one  of  which  they  could  conceive,  and  it  had 
survived  through  all  the  centuries  of  serf- 
dom, when  they  were  accustomed  to  say: 
"  We  are  yours,  but  the  land  is  ours."  In- 
stead of  twenty-five  million  people  rejoicing 
with  grateful  hearts,  there  was  a  ferment  of 
discontent  and  in  some  places  uprisings — one 
peasant  leader  telling  ten  thousand  who  rose 


320          A  SHORT  HISTORY  OP  RUSSIA. 

at  his  call  that  the  Emancipation  Law  was  a 
forgery,  they  were  being  deceived  and  not  per- 
mitted to  enjoy  what  the  Tsar,  their  "  Little 
Father,"  had  intended  for  their  happiness. 
But  considering  the  intricate  difficulties  at- 
tending such  a  tremendous  change  in  the  so- 
cial conditions,  the  emancipation  was  easily 
effected  and  the  Russian  peasants,  by  the  sur- 
vival of  their  old  Patriarchal  institutions,  were 
at  once  provided  with  a  complete  system  of 
local  self-government  in  which  the  ancient 
Slavonic  principle  was  unchanged.  At  the 
head  of  the  commune  or  mir  was  the  elder, 
a  group  of  communes  formed  a  Volost,  and 
the  head  of  the  Volost  was  responsible  for 
the  peace  and  order  of  the  community.  To 
this  was  later  added  the  Zemstvo  a  representa- 
tive assembly  of  peasants,  for  the  regulation  of 
local  matters. 

Such  a  new  reign  of  clemency  awakened 
hope  in  Poland  that  it  too  might  share  these 
benefits.  First  it  was  a  Constitution  such  as 
had  been  given  to  Hungary  for  which  they 
prayed.  Then,  as  Italy  was  emancipating 
herself,  they  grew  bolder,  and,  incited  by  so- 
cieties of  Polish  exiles,  all  over  Europe, 
demanded  more:  that  they  be  given  inde- 


A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.          221 

pendence.  Again  the  hope  of  a  Polo-Lith- 
uanian alliance,  and  a  recovery  of  the  lost 
Polish  provinces  in  the  Ukraine,  and  the  re- 
establishment  of  an  independent  kingdom  of 
Poland,  dared  to  assert  itself,  and  to  invite  a 
more  complete  destruction. 

The  liberal  Russians  might  have  sympa- 
thized with  the  first  moderate  demand,  but 
when  by  the  last  there  was  an  attempt  made 
upon  the  integrity  of  Russia,  there  was  but 
one  voice  in  the  empire.  So  cruel  and  so 
vindictive  was  the  punishment  of  the  Poles, 
by  Liberals  and  Conservatives  alike,  that 
Europe  at  last  in  1863  protested.  The  Polish 
language  and  even  alphabet  were  prohibited. 
Every  noble  in  the  land  had  been  involved  in 
this  last  conspiracy.  They  were  ordered  to 
sell  their  lands,  and  all  Poles  were  forbidden 
to  be  its  purchasers.  Nothing  of  Poland  was 
left  which  could  ever  rise  again. 


CHAPTER    XXIV 

TURCO-RUSSIAN    WAR — TREATY    OF    BERLIN 

LIBERALISM  had  received  a  check.  In  this 
outburst  of  severity,  used  to  repress  the  free 
instincts  of  a  once  great  nation,  the  temper  of 
the  Russian  people  had  undergone  a  change. 
The  warmth  and  ardor  were  chilled.  The 
Emperor's  grasp  tightened.  Some  even 
thought  that  Finland  ought  to  be  Russianized 
precisely  as  Poland  had  been;  but  convinced 
of  its  loyalty,  the  Grand  Principality  was 
spared,  and  the  privileges  so  graciously  be- 
stowed by  Alexander  the  First  were  con- 
firmed. 

While  the  political  reforms  had  been 
checked  by  the  Polish  insurrection,  there 
was  an  enormous  advance  in  everything  mak- 
ing for  material  prosperity.  Railways  and 
telegraph-wires,  and  an  improved  postal  serv- 
ice, connected  all  the  great  cities  in  the  em- 
pire, so  that  there  was  rapid  and  regular  com- 
munication with  each  other  and  all  the  world. 
Factories  were  springing  up,  mines  were 


A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.          223 

working,  and  trade  and  production  and  arts 
and  literature  were  all  throbbing  with  a  new 
life. 

In  1871,  at  the  conclusion  of  the  Franco- 
Prussian  War,  the  Emperor  Alexander  saw 
his  uncle  William  the  First  crowned  Emperor 
of  a  United  Germany  at  Paris.  The  approval 
and  the  friendship  of  Russia  at  this  crisis  were 
essential  to  the  new  German  Empire  as  well 
as  to  France.  Gortchakof,  the  Russian  Chan- 
cellor, saw  his  opportunity.  He  intimated  to 
the  Powers  the  intention  of  Russia  to  resume 
its  privileges  in  the  Black  Sea,  and  after  a 
brief  diplomatic  correspondence  the  Powers 
formally  abrogated  the  neutralization  of  those 
waters;  and  Russia  commenced  to  rebuild  her 
ruined  forts  and  to  re-establish  her  naval 
power  in  the  South. 

There  had  commenced  to  exist  those  close 
ties  between  the  Russian  and  other  reigning 
families  which  have  made  European  diplo- 
macy seem  almost  like  a  family  affair — al- 
though in  reality  exercising  very  little  influ- 
ence upon  it.  Alexander  himself  was  the  son 
of  one  of  these  alliances,  and  had  married  a 
German  Princess  of  the  house  of  Hesse.  In 
1866  his  son  Alexander  married  Princess 


224          A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 

Dagmar,  daughter  of  Christian  IX.,  King  of 
Denmark,  and  in  1874  he  gave  his  daughter 
Marie  in  marriage  to  Queen  Victoria's  second 
son  Alfred,  Duke  of  Edinburgh.  It  was  in 
the  following  year  (1875)  that  Lord  Beacons- 
field  took  advantage  of  a  financial  crisis  in 
Turkey,  and  a  financial  stringency  in  Egypt, 
to  purchase  of  the  Khedive  his  half-interest 
in  the  Suez  Canal  for  the  sum  of  $20,000,000, 
which  gave  to  England  the  ownership  of 
nearly  nine-tenths  of  that  important  link  in 
the  waterway  leading  direct  to  her  empire  in 
India. 

During  all  the  years  since  1856,  there  was 
one  subject  which  had  been  constantly  upper- 
most in  the  mind  of  England;  and  that  one 
subject  was  the  one  above  all  others  which 
her  Prime  Minister  tried  to  make  people  for- 
get. It  was  perfectly  well  known  when  one 
after  another  of  the  Balkan  states  revolted 
against  the  Turk — first  Herzegovina,  then 
Montenegro,  then  Bosnia — that  they  were 
suffering  the  crudest  oppression,  and  that  not 
one  of  the  Sultan's  promises  made  to  the  Pow- 
ers in  1856  had  been  kept.  But  in  1876  no 
one  could  any  longer  feign  ignorance.  An 
insignificant  outbreak  in  Bulgaria  took  place. 


A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.          225 

In  answer  to  a  telegram  sent  to  Constantino- 
ple a  body  of  improvised  militia,  called  Bashi- 
Bazuks,  was  sent  to  manage  the  affair  after 
its  own  fashion.  The  burning  of  seventy  vil- 
lages; the  massacre  of  fifteen  thousand — some 
say  forty  thousand — people,  chiefly  women 
and- children,  with  attendant  details  too  re- 
volting to  narrate;  the  subsequent  exposure 
of  Bulgarian  maidens  for  sale  at  Philippopolis 
— all  this  at  last  secured  attention.  Pamph- 
lets, newspaper  articles,  speeches,  gave  voice 
to  the  horror  of  the  English  people.  Lord 
Stratford  de  Redcliffe,  Gladstone,  John 
Bright,  Carlyle,  Freeman,  made  powerful  ar- 
raignments of  the  government  which  was  the 
supporter  and  made  England  the  accomplice 
of  Turkey  in  this  crime. 

However  much  we  may  suspect  the  sin- 
cerity of  Russia's  solicitude  regarding  her  co- 
religionists in  the  East,  it  must  be  admitted 
that  the  preservation  of  her  Faith  has  always 
been  treated — long  before  the  existence  of  the 
Eastern  Question — as  the  most  vital  in  her 
policy.  In  every  alliance,  every  negotiation, 
every  treaty,  it  was  the  one  thing  that  never 
was  compromised;  and  Greek  Christianity 
certainly  holds  a  closer  and  more  mystic  re- 


226          A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 

lation  to  the  government  of  Russia  than  the 
Catholic  or  Protestant  faiths  do  to  those  of 
other  lands. 

Russia  girded  herself  to  do  what  the  best 
sentiment  in  England  had  in  vain  demanded. 
She  declared  war  against  Turkey  in  support 
of  the  oppressed  provinces  of  Servia,  Herze- 
govina, and  Montenegro.  In  the  month  of 
April,  1877,  the  Russian  army  crossed  the 
frontier.  Then  came  the  capture  of  Ni- 
kopolis,  the  repulse  at  Plevna,  the  battle  of 
Shipka  Pass,  another  and  successful  battle  of 
Plevna,  the  storming  of  Kars,  and  then,  the 
Balkans  passed, — an  advance  upon  Constanti- 
nople. On  the  29th  of  January  the  last  shot 
was  fired.  The  Ottoman  Empire  had  been 
shaken  into  submission,  and  was  absolutely  at 
the  mercy  of  the  Tsar,  who  dictated  the  fol- 
lowing terms:  The  erection  of  Bulgaria  into 
an  autonomous  tributary  principality,  with  a 
native  Christian  government;  the  independ- 
ence of  Montenegro,  Roumania,  and  Servia;  a 
partial  autonomy  in  Bosnia  and  Herzegovina, 
besides  a  strip  of  territory  upon  the  Danube 
and  a  large  war  indemnity  for  Russia.  Such 
were  the  terms  of  the  Treaty  of  San  Stefano, 
signed  in  March,  1878.  To  the  undiplomatic 


A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.          227 

mind  this  seems  a  happy  conclusion  of  a  vexed 
question.  The  Balkan  states  were  independ- 
ent— or  partially  so;  and  the  Ottoman  Em- 
pire, although  so  shorn  and  shaken  as  to  be 
innocuous,  still  remained  as  a  dismantled 
wreck  to  block  the  passage  to  the  East. 

But  to  Beaconsfield  and  Bismarck  and  An- 
drassy,  and  the  other  plenipotentiaries  who 
hastened  to  Berlin  in  June  for  conference,  it 
was  a  very  indiscreet  proceeding,  and  must  all 
be  done  over.  Gortchakof  was  compelled  to 
relinquish  the  advantages  gained  by  Russia. 
Bulgaria  was  cut  into  three  pieces,  one  of 
which  was  handed  to  the  Sultan,  another  made 
tributary  to  him,  the  third  to  be  autono- 
mous under  certain  restrictions.  Montene- 
gro and  Servia  were  recognized  as  independ- 
ent, Bosnia  and  Herzegovina  were  given  to 
Austria;  Bessarabia,  lost  by  the  results  of  the 
Crimean  War,  was  now  returned  to  Russia, 
together  with  territory  about  and  adjacent  to 
Kars.  Most  important  of  all — the  Turkish 
Empire  was  revitalized  and  restored  to  a  po- 
sition of  stability  and  independence  by  the 
friendly  Powers! 

So  by  the  Treaty  of  Berlin  England  had  ac- 
quired the  island  of  Cyprus,  and  had  com- 


328          A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 

pelled  Russia,  after  immense  sacrifice  of  blood 
and  treasure,  to  relinquish  her  own  gains  and 
to  subscribe  to  the  line  of  policy  which  she 
desired.  A  costly  and  victorious  war  had 
been  nullified  by  a  single  diplomatic  battle  at 
Berlin. 

The  pride  of  Russia  was  deeply  wounded. 
It  was  openly  said  that  the  Congress  was  an 
outrage  upon  Russian  sensibilities — that 
"  Russian  diplomacy  was  more  destructive 
than  Nihilism." 

Emperor  Alexander  had  reached  the  me- 
ridian of  his  popularity  in  those  days  of 
promised  reforms,  before  the  Polish  insurrec- 
tion came  to  chill  the  currents  of  his  soul. 
For  a  long  time  the  people  would  not  believe 
he  really  intended  to  disappoint  their  hope; 
but  when  one  reform  after  another  was  re- 
called, when  one  severe  measure  after  an- 
other was  enacted,  and  when  he  surrounded 
himself  with  conservative  advisers  and  influ- 
ences, it  was  at  last  recognized  that  the  single 
beneficent  act  history  would  have  to  record 
in  this  reign  would  be  that  one  act  of  1861. 
And  now  his  prestige  was  dimmed  and  his 
popularity  still  more  diminished  by  such  a  sig- 
nal diplomatic  defeat  at  Berlin. 


CHAPTER   XXV 

ALEXANDER   II.   ASSASSINATED NIHILISM 

THE  emancipation  had  been  a  disappoint- 
ment to  its  promoters  and  to  the  serfs  them- 
selves. It  was  an  appalling  fact  that  year  after 
year  the  death-rate  had  alarmingly  increased, 
and  its  cause  was — starvation.  In  lands  the 
richest  in  the  world,  tilled  by  a  people  with  a 
passion  for  agriculture,  there  was  not  enough 
bread!  The  reasons  for  this  are  too  complex 
to  be  stated  here,  but  a  few  may  have  brief 
mention.  The  allotment  of  land  bestowed 
upon  each  liberated  serf  was  too  small  to  en- 
able him  to  live  and  to  pay  his  taxes,  unless 
the  harvests  were  always  good  and  he  was  al- 
ways employed.  He  need  not  live,  but  his 
taxes  must  be  paid.  It  required  three  days' 
work  out  of  each  week  to  do  that;  and  if  he 
had  not  the  money  when  the  dreaded  day  ar- 
rived, the  tax-collector  might  sell  his  corn, 
his  cattle,  his  farming  implements,  and  his 
house.  But  reducing  whole  communities  to 
beggary  was  not  wise,  so  a  better  way  was 

MB 


330          A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 

discovered,  and  one  which  entailed  no  dis- 
astrous economic  results.  He  was  flogged. 
The  time  selected  for  this  settling  of  accounts 
was  when  the  busy  season  was  over;  and 
Stepniak  tells  us  it  was  not  an  unusual  thing 
for  more  than  one  thousand  peasants  in  the 
winter — in  a  single  commune — to  be  seen 
awaiting  their  turn  to  have  their  taxes 
"  flogged  out."  Of  course,  before  this  was 
endured  all  means  had  been  exhausted  for  rais- 
ing the  required  amount.  Usury,  that  surest 
road  to  ruin,  and  the  one  offering  the  least  re- 
sistance, was  the  one  ordinarily  followed. 
Thus  was  created  that  destructive  class  called 
Koulaks,  or  Mir-eaters,  who,  while  they  fat- 
tened upon  the  necessities  of  the  peasantry, 
also  demoralized  the  state  by  creating  a 
wealthy  and  powerful  class  whom  it  would  not 
do  to  offend,  and  whose  abominable  and  ne- 
farious interests  must  not  be  interfered  with. 
Then  another  sort  of  bondage  was  discov- 
ered, one  very  nearly  approaching  to  serfdom. 
Wealthy  proprietors  would  make  loans  to  dis- 
tressed communes  or  to  individuals,  the  in- 
terest of  the  money  to  be  paid  by  the  peasants 
in  a  stipulated  number  of  days'  work  every 
week  until  the  original  amount  was  returned. 


A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.          231 

Sometimes,  by  a  clause  in  the  contract  increas- 
ing the  amount  in  case  of  failure  to  pay  at  a 
certain  time,  the  original  debt,  together  with 
the  accruing  interest,  would  be  four  or  five 
times  doubled.  And  if,  as  was  probable,  the 
principal  never  was  returned,  the  peasant 
worked  on  year  after  year  gratuitously,  in  the 
helpless,  hopeless  bondage  of  debt.  Nor  were 
these  the  worst  of  their  miseries,  for  there 
were  the  Tchinovniks — or  government  officials 
— who  could  mete  out  any  punishment  they 
pleased,  could  order  a  whole  community  to  be 
flogged,  or  at  any  moment  invoke  the  aid  of  a 
military  force  or  even  lend  it  to  private  indi- 
viduals for  the  subjugation  of  refractory 
peasants. 

And  this  was  what  they  had  been  waiting 
and  hoping  for,  for  two  centuries  and  a  half! 
But  with  touching  loyalty  not  one  of  them 
thought  of  blaming  the  Tsar.  Their  "  Little 
Father,"  if  he  only  knew  about  it,  would  make 
everything  right.  It  was  the  nobility,  the 
wicked  nobility,  that  had  brought  all  this  mis- 
ery upon  them  and  cheated  them  out  of  their 
happiness !  They  hated  the  nobility  for  steal- 
ing from  them  their  freedom  and  their  land; 
and  the  nobility  hated  them  for  not  being 


232          A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 

prosperous  and  happy,  and  for  bringing  fam- 
ine and  misery  into  the  state,  which  had  been 
so  kind  and  had  emancipated  them. 

As  these  conditions  became  year  after  year 
more  aggravated  acute  minds  in  Russia  were 
employed  in  trying  to  solve  the  great  social 
problems  they  presented.  In  a  land  in 
which  the  associative  principle  was  indige- 
nous, Socialism  was  a  natural  and  inevitable 
growth.  Then,  exasperated  by  the  increasing 
miseries  of  the  peasantry,  maddened  by  the 
sufferings  of  political  exiles  in  Siberia,  there 
came  into  existence  that  word  of  dire  sig- 
nificance in  Russia — Nihilism,  and  following 
quickly  upon  that,  its  logical  sequence — An- 
archism, which,  if  it  could,  would  destroy  all 
the  fruits  of  civilization. 

It  was  Turguenief  who  first  applied  the  an- 
cient term  "  Nihilist "  to  a  certain  class  of 
radical  thinkers  in  Russia,  whose  theory  of 
society,  like  that  of  the  eighteenth-century 
philosophers  in  France,  was  based  upon  a 
negation  of  the  principle  of  authority.  All 
institutions,  social  and  political,  however  dis- 
guised, were  tyrannies,  and  must  go.  In  the 
newly  awakened  Russian  mind,  this  first  as- 
sumed the  mild  form  of  a  demand  for  the  re- 


A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.          233 

moval  of  legislative  tyranny,  by  a  system  of 
gradual  reforms.  This  had  failed — now  the 
demand  had  become  a  mandate.  The  people 
must  have  relief.  The  Tsar  was  the  one  per- 
son who  could  bestow  it,  and  if  he  would  not  do 
so  voluntarily,  he  must  be  compelled  to  grant 
it.  No  one  man  had  the  right  to  wreck  the 
happiness  of  millions  of  human  beings.  If  the 
authority  was  centralized,  so  was  the  respon- 
sibility. Alexander's  entire  reign  had  been  a 
curse — and  emancipation  was  a  delusion  and 
a  lie.  He  must  yield  or  perish.  This  vicious 
and  degenerate  organization  had  its  center  in 
a  highly  educated  middle  class,  where  men  with 
nineteenth-century  intelligence  and  aspirations 
were  in  frenzied  revolt  against  methods  suited 
to  the  time  of  the  Khans.  The  inspiring  mo- 
tive was  not  love  of  the  people,  but  hatred  of 
their  oppressors.  Appeals  to  the  peasantry 
brought  small  response,  but  the  movement 
was  eagerly  joined  by  men  and  women  from 
the  highest  ranks  in  Russia. 

Secret  societies  and  organizations  were 
everywhere  at  work,  recruited  by  misguided 
enthusiasts,  and  by  human  suffering  from 
all  classes.  Wherever  there  were  hearts 
bruised  and  bleeding  from  official  cruelty, 


.234         A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 

in  whatever  ranks,  there  the  terrible  propa- 
ganda found  sympathizers,  if  not  a  home; 
men — and  still  more,  women — from  the 
highest  families  in  the  nobility  secretly 
pledging  themselves  to  the  movement,  until 
Russian  society  was  honeycombed  with  con- 
spiracy extending  even  to  the  household 
of  the  Tsar.  Proclamations  were  secretly 
issued  calling  upon  the  peasantry  to  arise. 
In  spite  of  the  vigilance  of  the  police, 
similar  invitations  to  all  the  Russian  people 
were  posted  in  conspicuous  places — "  We 
are  tired  of  famine,  tired  of  having  our 
sons  perish  upon  the  gallows,  in  the  mines, 
or  in  exile.  Russia  demands  liberty;  and  if 
she  cannot  have  liberty — she  will  have  ven- 
geance! " 

Such  was  the  tenor  of  the  threats  which 
made  the  life  of  Emperor  Alexander  a 
miserable  one  after  1870.  He  had  done 
what  not  one  of  his  predecessors  had 
been  willing  to  do.  He  had,  in  the  face 
of  the  bitterest  opposition,  bestowed  the 
gift  of  freedom  upon  23,000,000  human 
beings.  In  his  heart  he  believed  he  de- 
served the  good-will  and  the  gratitude  of  his 
subjects.  How  gladly  would  he  have  ruled 


A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.          235 

over  a  happy  empire!  But  what  could  he  do? 
He  Lad  absolute  power  to  make  his  people 
miserable — but  none  to  make  them  happy. 
It  was  not  his  fault  that  he  occupied  a  throne 
which  could  only  be  made  secure  by  a  policy 
of  stern  repression.  It  was  not  his  fault  that 
he  ruled  through  a  system  so  elementary,  so 
crude,  so  utterly  inadequate,  that  to  ad- 
minister justice  was  an  impossibility.  Nor 
was  it  his  fault  that  he  had  inherited  auto- 
cratic instincts  from  a  long  line  of  ancestors. 
In  other  words,  it  was  not  his  fault  that  he  was 
the  Tsar  of  Russia! 

The  grim  shadow  of  assassination  pursued 
him  wherever  he  went.  In  1879  the  imperial 
train  was  destroyed  by  mines  placed  beneath 
the  tracks.  In  1880  the  imperial  apartments 
in  "  the  Winterhof "  were  partially  wrecked 
by  similar  means.  Seventeen  men  marched 
stolidly  to  the  gallows,  regretting  nothing 
except  the  failure  of  their  crime;  and  hun- 
dreds more  who  were  implicated  in  the  plot 
were  sent  into  perpetual  exile  in  Siberia.  The 
hand  never  relaxed — nor  was  the  Constitution 
demanded  by  these  atrocious  means  granted. 

On  the  1 3th  of  March,  1881,  while  the  Em- 
peror was  driving,  a  bomb  was  thrown  be- 


236          A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 

neath  his  carriage.  He  stepped  out  of  the 
wreck  unhurt.  Then  as  he  approached  the 
assassin,  who  had  been  seized  by  the  police, 
another  was  thrown.  Alexander  fell  to  the 
ground,  exclaiming,  "Help  me!"  Terribly 
mutilated,  but  conscious,  the  dying  Emperor 
was  carried  into  his  palace,  and  there  in  a  few 
hours  he  expired. 

In  the  splendid  obsequies  of  the  Tsar,  noth- 
ing was  more  touching  than  the  placing  of  a 
wreath  upon  his  bier  by  a  deputation  of  peas- 
ants. It  can  be  best  described  in  their  own 
words.  The  Emperor  was  lying  in  the  Cathe- 
dral wrapped  in  a  robe  of  ermine,  beneath  a 
canopy  of  gold  and  silver  cloth  lined  with  er- 
mine. "  At  last  we  were  inside  the  church," 
says  the  narrative.  "  We  all  dropped  on  our 
knees  and  sobbed,  our  tears  flowing  like  a 
stream.  Oh,  what  grief!  We  rose  from  our 
knees,  again  we  knelt,  and  again  we  sobbed, 
this  did  we  three  times,  our  hearts  breaking 
beside  the  coffin  of  our  benefactor.  There  are 
no  words  to  express  it.  And  what  honor  was 
done  us!  The  General  took  our  wreath,  and 
placed  it  straightway  upon  the  breast  of  our 
Little  Father.  Our  peasants'  wreath  laid  on 
his  heart,  his  martyr  breast — as  we  were  in  all 


A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.          237 

his  life  nearest  to  his  heart!  Seeing  this  we 
burst  again  into  tears.  Then  the  General  let 
us  kiss  his  hand — and  there  he  lay,  our  Tsar- 
martyr,  with  a  calm,  loving  expression  on  his 
face — as  if  he,  our  Little  Father,  had  fallen, 
asleep." 

If  anything  had  been  needed  to  make  the 
name  Nihilism  forever  odious,  it  was  this 
deed.  If  anything  were  required  to  reveal  the 
bald  wickedness  of  the  creed  of  Nihilism,  it 
was  supplied  by  this  aimless  sacrifice  of  the 
one  sovereign  who  had  bestowed  a  colossal 
reform  upon  Russia.  They  had  killed  him, 
and  had  then  marched  unflinchingly  to  the 
gallows — and  that  was  all — leaving  others 
bound  by  solemn  oaths  to  bring  the  same  fate 
upon  his  successor.  The  whole  energy  of  the 
organization  was  centered  in  secreting  dyna- 
mite, awaiting  a  favorable  moment  for  its  ex- 
plosion, then  dying  like  martyrs,  leaving 
others  pledged  to  repeat  the  same  horror — 
and  so  ad  infinitum.  In  their  detestation  of 
one  crime  they  committed  a  worse  one.  They 
conspired  against  the  life  of  civilization — as 
if  it  were  not  better  to  be  ruled  by  despots 
than  assassins,  as  if  a  bad  government  were 
not  better  than  none! 


238          A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 

The  existence  of  Nihilism  may  be  ex- 
plained, though  not  extenuated.  Can  anyone 
estimate  the  effect  upon  a  single  human  being 
to  have  known  that  a  father,  brother,  son, 
sister,  or  wife  has  perished  under  the  knout? 
Could  such  a  person  ever  again  be  capable  of 
reasoning  calmly  or  sanely  upon  "  political  re- 
forms "?  If  there  were  any  slumbering  tiger- 
instincts  in  this  half-Asiatic  people,  was  not 
this  enough  to  awaken  them?  There  were 
many  who  had  suffered  this,  and  there  were 
thousands  more  who  at  that  very  time  had 
friends,  lovers,  relatives,  those  dearer  to  them 
than  life,  who  were  enduring  day  by  day  the 
tortures  of  exile,  subject  to  the  brutal  pun- 
ishments of  irresponsible  officials.  It  was  this 
which  had  converted  hundreds  of  the  nobility 
into  conspirators — this  which  had  made  So- 
phia Perovskaya,  the  daughter  of  one  of  the 
highest  officials  in  the  land,  give  the  signal  for 
the  murder  of  the  Emperor,  and  then,  scorn- 
ing mercy,  insist  that  she  should  have  the 
privilege  of  dying  upon  the  gallows  with  the 
rest. 

But  tiger-instincts,  whatever  their  cause, 
must  be  extinguished.  They  cannot  coexist 
with  civilization.  Human  society  as  consti- 


From  a  drawing  by  Edwin  B.  Child. 

The  Coronation  of  the  Czar  Alexander  III.,   1883. 
The  Emperor  crowning  the  Empress  at  the  Church  of  the  Assumption. 


A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.          239 

tuted  to-day  can  recognize  no  excuse  for 
them.  It  forbids  them — and  the  Nihilist  is 
the  Ishmael  of  the  nineteenth  century. 

The  world  was  not  surprised,  and  perhaps 
not  even  displeased,  when  Alexander  III. 
showed  a  dogged  determination  not  to  be 
coerced  into  reforms  by  the  assassination  of 
his  father  nor  threats  of  his  own.  His  coro- 
nation, long  deferred  by  the  tragedy  which 
threatened  to  attend  it,  finally  took  place  with 
great  splendor  at  Moscow  in  1883.  He  then 
withdrew  to  his  palace  at  Gatschina,  where  he 
remained  practically  a  prisoner.  Embittered 
by  the  recollection  of  the  fate  of  his  father, 
who  had  died  in  his  arms,  and  haunted  by  con- 
spiracies for  the  destruction  of  himself  and  his 
family,  he  was  probably  the  least  happy  man 
in  his  empire.  His  every  act  was  a  protest 
against  the  spirit  of  reform.  The  privileges 
so  graciously  bestowed  upon  the  Grand 
Duchy  of  Finland  by  Alexander  I.  were  for 
the  first  time  invaded.  Literature  and  the 
press  were  placed  under  rigorous  censorship. 
The  Zemstvo,  his  father's  gift  of  local  self- 
government  to  the  liberated  serfs,  was  prac- 
tically withdrawn  by  placing  that  body  under 
the  control  of  the  nobility. 


240          A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 

It  was  a  stern,  joyless  reign,  without  one 
act  intended  to  make  glad  the  hearts  of  the 
people.  The  depressing  conditions  in  which 
he  lived  gradually  undermined  the  health  of 
the  Emperor.  He  was  carried  in  dying  con- 
dition to  Livadia,  and  there,  surrounded  by 
his  wife  and  his  children,  he  expired  Novem- 
ber i,  1894. 


CHAPTER    XXVI 

FINLAND HAGUE   TRIBUNAL POLITICAL 

CONDITIONS 

WHEN  Nicholas  II.,  the  gentle-faced  young 
son  of  Alexander,  came  to  the  throne  there 
were  hopes  that  a  new  era  for  Russia  was  about 
to  commence.  There  has  been  nothing  yet 
to  justify  that  hope.  The  austere  policy  pur- 
sued by  his  father  has  not  been  changed.  The 
recent  decree  which  has  brought  grief  and  dis- 
may into  Finland  is  not  the  act  of  a  liberal 
sovereign!  A  forcible  Russification  of  that 
state  has  been  ordered,  and  the  press  in  Fin- 
land has  been  prohibited  from  censuring  the 
ukase  which  has  brought  despair  to  the 
hearts  and  homes  of  the  people.  The  Rus- 
sian language  has  been  made  obligatory  in 
the  university  of  Helsingfors  and  in  the 
schools,  together  with  other  severe  measures 
pointing  unmistakably  to  a  purpose  of  effac- 
ing the  Finnish  nationality — a  nationality, 
too,  which  has  never  by  disloyalty  or  insur- 
rection merited  the  fate  of  Poland. 

But  if  this  has  struck  a  discordant  note,  the 


242          A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 

invitation  to  a  Conference  of  the  Nations  with 
a  view  to  a  general  disarmament  has  been  one 
of  thrilling  and  unexpected  sweetness  and 
harmony.  Whether  the  Peace  Congress  at 
The  Hague  (1899)  does  or  does  not  arrive  at 
important  immediate  results,  itsc.vistcnce  is  one 
of  the  most  significant  facts  of  modern  times. 
It  is  the  first  step  on  the  way  to  that  millennial 
era  of  universal  peace  toward  which  a  per- 
fected Christian  civilization  must  eventually 
lead  us,  and  it  remained  for  an  autocratic  Tsar 
of  Russia  to  sound  the  call  and  to  be  the 
leader  in  this  movement. 

At  the  death-bed  of  his  father,  Nicholas  was 
betrothed  to  a  princess  of  the  House  of  Hesse, 
whose  mother  was  Princess  Alice,  daughter  of 
Queen  Victoria.  Upon  her  marriage  this 
Anglo-German  princess  was  compelled  to 
make  a  public  renunciation  of  her  own  faith, 
and  to  accept  that  of  her  imperial  consort — 
the  orthodox  faith  of  Russia.  The  personal 
traits  of  the  Emperor  seem  so  exemplary  that, 
if  he  fails  to  meet  the  heroic  needs  of  the  hour, 
the  world  is  disposed  not  to  reproach  him,  but 
rather  to  feel  pity  for  the  young  ruler  who  has 
had  thrust  upon  him  such  an  insoluble  prob- 
lem. His  character  recalls  somewhat  that  of 


A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.          243 

his  great-uncle  Alexander  I.  We  see  the 
same  vague  aspiration  after  grand  ideals,  and 
the  same  despotic  methods  in  dealing  with 
things  in  the  concrete.  No  general  amnesty 
attended  his  coronation,  no  act  of  clemency 
has  been  extended  to  political  exiles.  Men 
and  women  whose  hairs  have  whitened  in  Si- 
beria have  not  been  recalled — not  one  thing 
done  to  lighten  the  awful  load  of  anguish  in 
his  empire.  It  may  have  been  unreasonable 
to  have  looked  for  reforms;  but  certainly  it 
was  not  too  much  to  expect  mercy! 

What  one  man  could  reform  Russia?  Who 
could  reform  a  volcano?  There  are  frightful 
energies  beneath  that  adamantine  surface — • 
energies  which  have  been  confined  by  a  rude, 
imperfectly  organized  system  of  force; a  chain- 
work  of  abuses  roughly  welded  together  as 
occasion  required.  It  is  a  system  created  by 
emergencies, — improvised,  not  grown, — in 
which  to  remove  a  single  abuse  endangers  the 
whole.  When  the  imprisoned  forces  tried  to 
escape  at  one  spot,  more  force  was  applied  and 
more  bands  and  more  rivets  brutally  held  them 
down,  and  were  then  retained  as  a  necessary 
part  of  the  whole. 

On  the  surface  is  absolutism  in  glittering 


244          A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 

completeness,  and  beneath  that — chaos. 
Lying  at  the  bottom  of  that  chaos  is 
the  great  mass  of  Slavonic  people  un- 
developed as  children — an  embryonic  civili- 
zation— utterly  helpless  and  utterly  miser- 
able. In  the  mass  lying  above  that  exists 
the  mind  of  Russia — through  which  course 
streams  of  unduly  developed  intelligence 
in  fierce  revolt  against  the  omnipresence 
of  misery.  And  still  above  that  is  the 
shining,  enameled  surface  rivaling  that  of 
any  other  nation  in  splendor.  The  Emperor 
may  say  with  a  semblance  of  truth  I'ctat  c'est 
moi,  but  although  he  may  combine  in  himself 
all  the  functions,  judicial,  legislative,  and  ex- 
ecutive, no  channels  have  been  supplied,  no 
finely  organized  system  provided  for  convey- 
ing that  triple  stream  to  the  extremities.  The 
living  currents  at  the  top  have  never  reached 
the  mass  at  the  bottom — that  despised  but 
necessary  soil  in  which  the  prosperity  of  the 
Empire  is  rooted.  There  has  been  no  vital 
interchange  between  the  separated  elements, 
which  have  been  in  contact,  but  not  in  union. 
And  Russia  is  as  heterogeneous  in  condition  as 
it  is  in  elements.  It  has  accepted  ready-made 
the  methods  of  Greek,  of  Tatar,  and  of  Euro- 


A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.          245 

pean;  but  has  assimilated  none  of  them;  and 
Russian  civilization,  with  its  amazing  quality, 
its  bewildering  variety  of  achievement  in  art, 
literature,  diplomacy,  and  in  every  field,  is  not 
a  natural  development,  but  a  monstrosity. 
The  genius  intended  for  a  whole  people  seems 
to  have  been  crowded  into  a  few  narrow 
channels.  Where  have  men  written  with 
such  tragic  intensity?  Where  has  there  been 
music  suggesting  such  depths  of  sadness  and 
of  human  passion?  And  who  has  ever  told 
upon  canvas  the  story  of  the  battlefield  with 
such  energy  and  with  such  thrilling  reality,  as 
has  Verestchagin  ? 

The  youngest  among  the  civilizations,  and 
herself  still  only  partially  civilized,  Russia  is 
one  of  the  most — if  not  the  most — important 
factor  in  the  world-problem  to-day,  and  the 
one  with  which  the  future  seems  most  serious- 
ly involved.  She  has  only  just  commenced 
to  draw  upon  her  vast  stores  of  energy; 
energies  which  were  accumulating  during  the 
ages  when  the  other  nations  were  lavishly 
spending  theirs.  How  will  this  colossal  force 
be  used  in  the  future?  Moving  silently  and 
irresistibly  toward  the  East,  and  guided  by  a 
subtle  and  far-reaching  policy,  who  can  foresee 


246          A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 

what  will  be  the  end,  and  what  the  ultimate 
destiny  of  the  Empire  which  had  its  beginning 
in  a  small  Slavonic  State  upon  the  Dnieper, 
and  which,  until  a  little  more  than  a  century 
ago,  was  too  much  of  a  barbarian  to  be  ad- 
mitted into  the  fraternity  of  European  States. 
The  farthest  removed  from  us  in  political 
ideals,  Russia  has  in  the  various  crises  in 
our  national  life  always  been  America's  truest 
friend.  When  others  apparently  nearer  have 
failed  us,  she  has  stood  steadfastly  by  us.  We 
can  never  forget  it.  Owning  a  large  portion 
of  the  earth's  surface,  rich  beyond  calculation 
in  all  that  makes  for  national  wealth  and  pros- 
perity, with  a  peasantry  the  most  confiding, 
the  most  loyal,  the  most  industrious  in  the 
world,  with  intellectual  power  and  genius  in 
abundant  measure,  and  with  pride  of  race  and 
a  patriotism  profound  and  intense,  what  more 
does  Russia  need?  Only  three  things — that 
cruelty  be  abandoned;  that  she  be  made  a 
homogeneous  nation;  and  that  she  be  per- 
mitted to  live  under  a  government  capable  of 
administering  justice  to  her  people.  These 
she  must  have  and  do.  In  the  coming  century 
there  will  be  no  place  for  barbarism.  There 
will  be  something  in  the  air  which  will  make 


A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.          247 

it  impossible  that  a  great  part  of  a  frozen  con- 
tinent  shall  be  dedicated  to  the  use  of  suffering 
human  beings,  kept  there  by  the  will  of  one 
man.  There  will  be  something  in  the  air 
which  will  forbid  cruelty  and  compel  mercy 
and  justice,  and  which  will  make  men  or  na- 
tions feign  those  virtues  if  they  have  them  not. 
The  antagonism  between  England  and 
Russia  has  a  deeper  significance  than  appears 
on  the  surface.  It  is  not  the  Eastern  ques- 
tion, not  the  control  of  Constantinople,  not 
the  obtaining  of  concessions  from  China  which 
is  at  stake.  It  is  the  question  which  of  two 
principles  shall  prevail.  The  one  represented 
by  a  despotism  in  which  the  people  have  no 
part,  or  the  one  represented  by  a  system  of 
government  through  which  the  will  of  the 
people  freely  acts.  There  can  be  but  one  re- 
sult in  such  a  conflict,  one  answer  to  such 
a  question.  The  eternal  purposes  are  writ 
too  large  in  the  past  to  mistake  them. 
And  it  is  the  ardent  hope  of  America  that 
Russia — that  Empire  which  has  so  generously 
accorded  us  her  friendship  in  our  times  of 
peril — may  not  by  cataclysm  from  within,  but 
of  her  own  volition,  place  herself  fully  in  line 
with  the  ideals  of  an  advanced  civilization. 


SUPPLEMENT  TO  SHORT  HISTORY 
OF  RUSSIA 


FROM  Rurik  to  Nicholas  III.  the  policy  of 
Russia  has  been  determined  by  its  thirst  for 
the  sea.  Every  great  struggle  in  the  life  of 
this  colossal  land-locked  empire  has  had  for 
its  ultimate  object  the  opening  of  a  door  to 
the  ocean,  from  which  nature  has  ingeniously 
excluded  it.  In  the  first  centuries  of  its  exist- 
ence Rurik  and  his  descendants  were  inces- 
santly hurling  themselves  against  the  door 
leading  to  the  Mediterranean.  But  the  door 
would  not  yield.  Then  Ivan  IV.  and  his  de- 
scendants, with  no  greater  success,  hammered 
at  the  door  leading  to  the  West.  The  thirst 
growing  with  defeat  became  a  national  instinct. 
When  Peter  the  Great  first  looked  out  upon 
the  sea,  at  Archangel,  and  when  he  created 
that  miniature  navy  upon  the  Black  Sea,  and 
when  he  dragged  his  capital  from  "  Holy 
Moscow  "  to  the  banks  of  the  Neva,  planting 
it  upon  that  submerged  tract,  he  \vas  impelled 
by  the  same  instinct  which  is  to-day  making 
history  in  the  Far  East. 
249 


25°          A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 

It  was  in  1582  that  Yermak,  the  Cossack 
robber  and  pirate,  under  sentence  of  death, 
won  a  pardon  from  Ivan  IV.  ("  the  Terrible  ") 
in  exchange  for  Siberia — that  unknown  region 
stretching  across  the  Continent  of  Asia  to  the 
Pacific.  Eight  hundred  Cossacks  under  the 
daring  outlaw  had  sufficed  to  drive  the  scat- 
tered Asiatic  tribes  before  them  and  to  estab- 
lish the  sovereignty  of  Yermak,  who  then 
gladly  exchanged  his  prize  with  the  "  Orthodox 
Tsar  "  for  his  "  traitorous  head." 

It  was  the  tremendous  energy  of  one  man, 
Muraviev,  which  led  to  the  development  of 
Eastern  Siberia.  Pathfinder  and  pioneer  in 
the  march  across  the  Asiatic  continent,  draw- 
ing settlers  after  him  as  he  moved  along,  he 
reached  the  mouth  of  the  Amur  river  in 
1846,  and,  at  last,  the  empire  possessed  a 
naval  station  upon  the  Pacific,  which  was 
named  Nikolaifsk,  after  the  reigning  Tsar, 
Nicholas  I. 

It  was  this  Tsar,  great-grandfather  of 
Nicholas  II.,  who,  grimly  turning  his  back 
upon  Western  Europe,  set  the  face  of  Russia 
toward  the  East,  reversing  the  direction  which 
has  always  been  the  course  of  empire.  What 
had  Russia  to  gain  from  alliances  in  the 


A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.          251 

West?  Her  future  was  in  the  East;  and  he 
intended  to  drive  back  the  tide  of  European- 
ism  which  his  predecessors  had  so  indus- 
triously invited.  Russian  youths  were  pro- 
hibited from  being  educated  in  \Vestern 
universities,  and  at  the  same  time  there  was 
established  at  Canton  a  school  of  instruction 
where  they  might  learn  the  Chinese  language 
and  the  methods  and  spirit  of  Chinese  civiliza- 
tion. It  was  a  determined  purpose  to  Oriental- 
ize his  empire.  And  violating  all  the  tradi- 
tions of  history,  the  flight  of  the  Russian 
Eagle  from  that  moment  was  toward  the 
rising,  not  the  setting  sun. 

Muraviev,  now  Governor  of  the  Eastern 
Provinces  of  Siberia,  was  empowered  to  nego- 
tiate a  treaty  with  China  to  determine  the 
rights  of  the  two  nations  upon  the  river  Amur, 
which  separated  Manchuria,  the  northernmost 
province  of  China,  from  Russian  Siberia.  The 
treaty,  which  was  concluded  in  1858,  conceded 
the  left  bank  of  this  river  to  Russia. 

Nikolai fsk,  a  great  part  of  the  year  sealed 
up  with  ice,  was  only  a  stepping-stone  for  the 
next  advance  southward.  From  the  mouth  of 
the  Amur  to  the  frontier  of  Korea  there  was 
a  strip  of  territory  lying  between  the 


252          A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 

sea  on  the  east  and  the  Ussuri  river  on  the 
west,  which  to  the  Russian  mind,  at  that  time, 
seemed  an  ideal  possession.  How  it  was  ac- 
complished it  is  needless  to  say;  but  China 
reluctantly  agreed  that  there  should  be  for  a 
time  a  joint  occupation  of  this  strip,  and,  in 
1859,  needing  Russia's  friendship,  it  was  un- 
conditionally bestowed.  The  "  Ussuri  Region  " 
was  now  transformed  into  the  "Maritime 
Provinces  of  Siberia,"  and  the  Russian  Em- 
pire, by  the  stroke  of  a  pen,  had  moved  ten 
degrees  toward  the  south.  Vladivostok,  at 
the  southern  extremity  of  the  new  province, 
was  founded  in  1860,  and  in  1872  made  chief 
naval  station  on  the  eastern  coast,  in  place  of 
Nikolai  fsk. 

But  the  prize  obtained  after  such  expendi- 
ture of  effort  and  diplomacy  was  far  from 
satisfactory.  Of  what  use  was  a  naval  station 
which  was  not  only  ice-bound  half  the  year  but 
from  which,  even  when  ice-free,  it  was  impos- 
sible for  ships  to  reach  the  open  sea  except  by 
passing  through  narrow  gateways  controlled 
by  Japan?  How  to  overcome  these  obstacles, 
how  to  circumvent  nature  in  her  persistent 
effort  to  imprison  her — this  was  the  problem 
set  for  Russian  diplomacy  to  solve. 


A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.          253 

The  eastern  slice  of  Manchuria,  which  now 
had  become  the  "  Maritime  Province  of  Si- 
beria," was  a  pleasant  morsel,  six  hundred 
miles  long.  But  there  was  a  still  more  desired 
strip  lying  in  the  sun  south  of  it — a  peninsula 
jutting  out  into  the  sea,  the  extreme  southern 
end  of  which  (Port  Arthur)  was  ideally  situated 
for  strategic  purposes,  commanding  as  it  does 
the  Gulf  of  Pechili,  the  Gulf  of  Liao-Tung  and 
the  Yellow  Sea.  Who  could  tell  what  might 
happen?  China  was  in  an  unstable  condition. 
Her  integrity  was  threatened.  England, 
France  and  Germany,  quickly  following  Rus- 
sia's lead  in  the  Ussuri  strip,  had  already 
wrung  privileges  from  her.  Circumstances 
might  any  day  justify  Russia's  occupation  of 
the  entire  peninsula.  She  could  afford  to  wait. 
And  while  she  waited  she  was  not  idle. 

The  post-road  across  Asia  was  no  longer 
adequate  for  the  larger  plans  developing  in 
the  East ;  so  the  construction  of  a  railway  was 
planned  to  span  the  distance  between  Moscow 
and  Vladivostok.  At  a  point  beyond  Lake 
Baikal  the  river  Amur  makes  a  sudden  detour, 
sweeping  far  toward  the  north  before  it  again 
descends,  thus  enclosing  a  large  bit  of  Man- 
churia in  a  form  not  unlike  the  State  of  Michi- 


254          A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 

gan.  Many  miles  of  the  projected  road  might 
be  saved  by  crossing  the  diameter  of  this  semi- 
circle and  moving  in  a  straight  line  to  Vladi- 
vo'stok,  across  Chinese  territory.  It  did  not 
seem  wise  at  this  time  to  ask  such  a  privilege, 
the  patience  of  China  being  already  strained 
by  the  matter  of  the  Ussuri  strip,  that  much- 
harassed  country  being  also  suspicious  of  the 
railroad  itself.  So  with  consummate  tact  Rus- 
sia proceeded  to  build  the  road  from  the  two 
extremities,  leaving  this  gap  to  be  adjusted  by 
time  and  circumstances.  She  had  not  to  wait 
long.  In  1894  an  unexpected  event  altered  the 
whole  face  of  the  problem.  War  was  declared 
between  China  and  Japan. 

The  three  Oriental  nations  involved  in  this 
dispute — China,  Japan  and  Korea — offer  three 
distinct  and  strongly  contrasting  types  coming 
out  of  the  mysterious  region  the  world  used 
to  know  by  the  comprehensive  name  of  Cathay. 
When  we  read  of  160,000  Japanese  soldiers 
in  the  year  1600  tramping  across  Korea  for 
the  purpose  of  conquering  their  great  neighbor 
China,  it  has  a  familiar  sound!  But  China 
was  not  conquered  by  Japan  in  1600,  and  re- 
mained the  dominant  power  in  the  East,  as  she 
had  been  since  she  struggled  out  of  the  Mongol 


A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.          255 

yoke  which,  in  common  with  Russia,  Kublai- 
Khan  imposed  upon  her  in  1260. 

At  the  time  of  this  Mongol  invasion,  the 
Manchus,  a  nomadic  tribe,  gathered  up  their 
portable  tents  and  fled  into  a  province  lying 
beyond  the  Great  Wall,  permanently  occu- 
pying the  region  now  called  Manchuria.  Re- 
mote and  obscure,  the  Manchus  were  almost 
unknown  to  the  Chinese  until  the  year  1580, 
when  Tai-Tsu,  a  remarkable  man  and  born 
leader,  on  account  of  grievances  suffered  by 
his  tribe,  organized  a  revolt  against  China 
and  made  a  victorious  assault  upon  his  power- 
ful Suzerain.  Upon  his  death,  in  1626,  his 
victories  were  continued  by  his  son,  who  over- 
threw the  reigning  dynasty  and  was  pro- 
claimed Emperor  of  China.  And  that  wretched 
youth  who  is  to-day  obscured  and  dominated 
by  the  powerful  Empress  Dowager  at  Pekin 
is  the  lineal  descendant  of  Tai-Tsu  and  the  last 
representative  of  the  Manchurian  Dynasty, 
which  has  ruled  China  for  nearly  four  centu- 
ries. 

The  Manchus  had  not  much  in  the  way  of 
civilization  to  impose  upon  the  people  they 
had  conquered.  But  such  as  they  had  they 
brought  with  them;  and  the  shaven  forehead 


256          A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 

and  the  queue,  so  precious  to  the  Chinese,  are 
Manchurian  exotics.  Mukden,  the  capital  of 
Manchuria,  became  the  "  Sacred  City,"  where 
Manchurian  Emperors  at  death  were  laid  be- 
side Tai-Tsu.  Wealthy  mandarins  built  resi- 
dences there.  It  became  splendid  and,  next 
only  to  Pekin,  was  known  as  the  second  official 
city  in  the  empire. 

While  the  world  has  long  been  familiar  with 
China  and  its  civilization,  Japan  and  Korea 
have  only  recently  come  out  from  their  Ori- 
ental seclusion.  In  looking  into  the  past  of 
the  former,  in  vain  do  we  seek  for  any  ade- 
quate explanation,  anything  which  will  reason- 
ably account  for  that  phenomenally  endowed 
race  which  occupies  the  centre  of  the  stage 
to-day;  which,  knowing  absolutely  nothing  of 
our  civilization  forty  years  ago,  has  so  digested 
and  assimilated  its  methods  and  essential  prin- 
ciples that  it  is  beating  us  at  our  own  game. 

From  its  earliest  period  this  country  was 
under  a  feudal  system  of  government,  with 
the  Mikado  as  its  supreme  and  sacred  head. 
The  Divine  nature  of  this  being  separated  him 
from  the  temporal  affairs  of  the  nation,  which 
were  in  the  hands  of  the  Shogun,  who  repre- 
sented the  strong  arm  of  the  state.  Next  be- 


A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.          257 

low  the  Shogun  were  the  Daimios,  the  feudal 
or  military  chiefs;  these  in  turn  being  the 
rulers  of  bands  of  military  retainers  which 
constituted  the  aristocratic  class,  and  were 
called  the  Samurai. 

Shintoism,  a  form  of  ancestral  worship  and 
sacrifice  to  dead  heroes,  which  was  the  primi- 
tive cult  of  Japan,  was  in  600  A.  D.  super- 
seded, or  rather  absorbed,  by  Buddhism,  which 
for  a  thousand  years  has  prevailed.  And  al- 
though Shintoism  to  some  extent  still  lingers, 
and  although  Confucianism  with  its  philo- 
sophical and  abstract  principles  has  always  had 
its  followers,  still  Japanese  civilization  is  the 
child  of  Gautama. 

The  dual  sovereignty  of  the  Mikado  and 
the  Shogun,  like  that  existing  in  the  Holy 
Roman  Empire,  made  a  great  deal  of  history 
in  Japan.  The  things  representing  the  real 
power  in  a  state  were  in  the  hands  of  the 
Shogun.  The  Mikado  was  venerated,  but  this 
first  servant  in  the  land  was  feared,  the  one 
dwelling  in  a  seclusion  so  sacred  that  to  look 
upon  him  was  almost  a  sacrilege,  the  other 
with  armies  and  castles  and  wealth  and  the 
pomp  and  circumstance  which  attend  the  real 
sovereign.  History  again  repeats  itself  as  we 


«S8         A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 

see  this  Maire  du  Palais  obscuring  more  and 
more  the  titular  sovereign,  the  Mikado,  until 
like  Pepin  he  openly  claimed  absolute  sover- 
eignty, assuming  the  title  of  Tycoon. 

The  people  rose  against  this  usurpation.  It 
was  while  in  the  throes  of  this  revolution  that 
the  United  States  Government  dispatched  a 
few  ships  under  Commodore  Perry,  in  protec- 
tion of  some  American  citizens  in  Japan. 
After  this  events  moved  swiftly.  In  1854  a 
treaty  with  the  United  States — their  first  with 
foreign  nations — was  signed  at  Yokohama. 
Treaties  with  other  nations  speedily  followed. 
In  1860  a  Japanese  embassy  arrived  at  Wash- 
ington, and  similar  ones  were  established  in 
European  capitals. 

In  1869  the  revolution  was  over.  The  party 
of  the  usurping  Tycoon  was  defeated  and  the 
Shogunate  abolished.  The  anti-foreign  spirit 
which  was  allied  with  it  shared  this  defeat,  and 
the  party  desiring  to  adopt  the  methods  of 
foreign  lands  was  triumphant.  There  was  a 
reorganization  of  the  government,  with  the 
Mikado  as  its  single  and  supreme  head.  The 
entire  feudal  structure,  with  its  Daimios  and 
Samurai,  was  swept  away.  A  representative 
body  was  created  holding  a  relation  to  the 


A  SHORT  HISTORY  OP  RUSSIA.          259 

Mikado  similar  to  that  of  the  Houses  of  Par- 
liament to  the  King  of  England.  The  rights 
of  the  people  were  safeguarded.  In  other 
words,  at  a  bound,  an  Oriental  feudal  and  mil- 
itary despotism  had  become  a  modern  demo- 
cratic free  state.  From  this  moment  dates  an 
ascent  from  obscurity  to  an  advanced  type  of 
civilization,  accomplished  with  a  swiftness 
without  a  parallel  in  the  history  of  nations. 

Japanese  youths,  silent,  intent,  studious, 
were  in  European  and  American  universities, 
colleges,  technical  schools,  learning  the  arts  of 
war  and  of  peace.  When  war  was  declared 
between  China  and  Japan  (1894),  the  world 
discovered  that  they  had  not  studied  in  vain. 

In  order  to  understand  the  Chino- Japanese 
war,  one  must  know  something  of  Korea,  that 
little  peninsula  jutting  out  between  these  two 
countries,  washed  by  the  Yellow  Sea  on  the 
west  and  by  the  Sea  of  Japan  on  the  east. 

In  the  Koreans  we  seem  to  behold  the 
wraith  of  a  something  which  existed  long  ago. 
There  are  traditions  of  ancient  greatness,  the 
line  of  their  present  King  stretching  proudly 
back  to  1390,  and  beyond  that  an  indefinite 
background  of  splendor  and  vista  of  heroic 
deeds  which,  we  are  told,  made  China  and 


260          A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 

Japan  and  all  the  East  tremble!  But  to-day 
we  see  a  feeble  and  rather  gentle  race,  eccentric 
in  customs  and  dress  and  ideals,  with  odd  rites 
and  ceremonials  chiefly  intended  to  placate  de- 
moniacal beings  to  whom  they  ascribe  supreme 
control  over  human  events.  Nothing  may 
be  done  by  the  King  or  his  humblest  subject 
without  consulting  the  sorcerers  and  exorcists, 
who  alone  know  the  propitious  moment  and 
place  for  every  important  act.  With  no  recog- 
nition of  a  Supreme  Being,  no  sacred  books; 
without  temples,  or  art,  or  literature,  or  indus- 
tries, excepting  one  or  two  of  a  very  simple 
nature,  it  is  extremely  difficult  for  the  Western 
mind  to  understand  what  life  must  mean  to 
this  people.  That  it  is  a  degenerate  form  of 
national  life  which  must  be  either  absorbed  or 
effaced  seems  obvious.  And  if  the  life  of 
Korean  nationality  is  prolonged  in  the  future, 
it  will  be  simply  because,  like  Turkey,  it  harm- 
lessly holds  a  strategic  point  too  valuable  to 
be  allowed  to  pass  into  the  hands  of  any  one 
of  the  nations  which  covet  it.  And  it  is  also 
easy  to  foresee  that  in  the  interval  existing 
until  its  absorption,  Korea  must  remain,  also 
like  Turkey,  merely  the  plaything  of  diplomacy 
and  the  battle-ground  for  rival  nations. 


A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.          261 

Until  the  year  1876  Korea  was  really  a 
"  Hermit  Kingdom,"  with  every  current  from 
the  outside  world  carefully  excluded.  In 
that  year  her  near  neighbor,  Japan,  made  the 
first  rift  in  the  enclosing  shell.  A  treaty  was 
concluded  opening  Chemulpo,  Fusan  and  Won- 
San  to  Japanese  trade.  The  civilizing  tide 
pressed  in,  and  by  1883  the  United  States, 
France,  England  and  Germany  had  all  con- 
cluded treaties  and  Korea  was  open  to  the 
outside  world. 

The  government  of  Korea  at  this  time  was 
simply  an  organized  system  of  robbery  and 
extortion — wearing  not  even  the  mask  of  jus- 
tice. The  undisguised  aim  of  officialdom  was 
to  extort  money  from  the  people;  and  the  aim 
of  the  high-born  Korean  youth  (or  yang-ban) 
was  to  pass  the  royal  examination  in  Chinese 
classics,  which  was  requisite  to  make  him 
eligible  for  official  position,  and  then  join  the 
horde  of  vampires  who  fed  upon  the  people. 
At  irregular  intervals  there  were  revolts,  and 
under  the  pressure  of  violent  acts  temporary 
relief  would  be  afforded;  then  things  would 
go  on  as  before. 

While  such  was  the  perennial  condition  of 
political  unrest,  a  rebellion  of  a  different  sort 


a6a         A  SHORT  HISTORY  OP  RUSSIA. 

broke  out  at  Seoul  in  1885 — an  anti-foreign 
rebellion — which  had  for  its  purpose  the  ex- 
pulsion of  all  the  foreign  legations.  This  led 
to  negotiations  between  China  and  Japan 
having  an  important  bearing  upon  subsequent 
events.  Li  Hung  Chang,  representing  China, 
and  Marquis  Ito,  the  Japanese  Foreign  Minis- 
ter, held  a  conference  (1885)  at  Tien-tsin, 
which  resulted  in  what  is  known  as  the  "  Li- 
Ito  treaty."  In  view  of  the  disorders  existing, 
it  was  agreed  that  their  respective  govern- 
ments should  hold  a  joint  control  in  Korea, 
each  having  the  right  to  dispatch  troops  to  the 
peninsula  if  required.  This  agreement  was 
later  expanded  into  a  joint  occupation  until 
reform  should  be  established  insuring  security 
and  order.  These  negotiations  left  Korea  as 
before  an  independent  state,  although  tributary 
to  China. 

The  Koreans  attributed  their  calamities  to 
their  Queen,  a  woman  of  intelligence  and  craft, 
who  managed  to  keep  her  own  family  in  the 
highest  positions  and  also,  by  intriguing  with 
China,  to  thwart  Japanese  reforms.  It  soon 
became  apparent  that  so  far  from  co-operating 
in  these  reforms,  which  were  an  essential  part 
of  the  Li-Ito  agreement,  China  intended  to 


A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.          263 

make  them  impossible.  The  Government  at 
Tokio  came  to  a  momentous  decision. 

In  1894  an  outbreak  more  serious  than  usual 
occurred,  known  as  the  "  Tong-Hak  Rebel- 
lion." Li  Hung  Chang  promptly  sent  an  army 
from  Tien-tsin  for  its  suppression,  another 
from  Japan  coming  simultaneously. 

But  the  Japanese  army  poured  into  Che- 
mulpo in  such  numbers  and  with  a  perfection 
of  equipment  suggesting  a  purpose  not  men- 
tioned in  the  Li-Ito  agreement!  China's  pro- 
test was  met  by  open  defiance,  Japan  declaring 
that,  as  the  convention  of  1885  had  been  vio- 
lated, she  should  no  longer  recognize  the  sov- 
ereignty of  China  in  Korea. 

War  was  declared  Aug.  i,  1894.  The 
Mikado's  Government  was  not  unprepared  for 
this  crisis.  There  were  no  surprises  awaiting 
the  army  of  little  men  as  they  poured  into 
Korea.  They  knew  the  measurements  of  the 
rivers,  the  depth  of  the  fords  and  every  minut- 
est detail  of  the  land  they  intended  to  invade. 
Their  emissaries  in  disguise  had  also  been 
gauging  the  strength  and  the  weakness  of 
China  from  Thibet  to  the  sea.  They  knew 
her  corruption,  her  crumbling  defenses,  her 
antique  arms  and  methods,  the  absence  of  all 


264         A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 

provision  for  the  needs  of  an  army  in  the 
field. 

With  a  bewildering  suddenness  and  celerity 
the  plan  of  the  campaign  developed.  First 
the  control  of  Korea  was  secured,  then  the 
command  of  the  sea,  then  the  Yalu  was 
crossed;  and  while  one  division  of  the  army 
was  pouring  into  Manchuria,  threatening  Niu- 
Chwang  and  beyond  that  Mukden,  a  second 
division  landed  at  Pitsewo,  making  a  rapid 
descent  upon  Port  Arthur,  the  chief  stronghold 
of  China,  which  was  captured  by  assault  Nov. 
20,  1894. 

Wei-Hai-Wei,  the  next  strongly  fortified 
point  on  the  coast  of  China,  south  of  Port 
Arthur,  of  almost  equal  strategic  value,  was 
defended  with  desperation  by  sea  and  by 
land.  But  in  vain;  and,  with  the  capitulation 
of  Wei-Hai-Wei,  Feb.  12,  1895,  the  war  was 
ended. 

With  the  "Sacred  City"  of  Mukden 
threatened  in  the  north,  and  Pekin  in  the  south, 
Japan  could  name  her  own  terms  as  the  price 
of  peace.  First  of  all  she  demanded  an  ac- 
knowledgment of  the  independence  of  Korea. 
Then  that  the  island  of  Formosa  and  the 
Manchurian  peninsula  (Liao-Tung),  embrac- 


A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.          265 

ing  a  coast  line  from  the  Korean  boundary  to 
Port  Arthur,  should  belong  to  her. 

A  severe  blow  had  been  dealt  to  Russia. 
She  saw  her  entire  Eastern  policy  threatened 
with  failure.  The  permanent  occupation  of  the 
Liao-Tung  peninsula  by  Japan  meant  that  she 
had  to  deal,  not  with  an  effete  and  waning 
power  which  she  might  threaten  and  cajole, 
but  with  a  new  and  ambitious  civilization 
which  had  just  given  proof  of  surprising 
ability.  After  vast  exenditure  of  energy  and 
treasure  and  diplomacy,  access  to  the  sea  was 
further  off  than  ever. 

Then  came  a  masterly  stroke.  Germany  and 
France  were  induced  to  co-operate  with  Russia 
in  driving  Japan  out  of  Manchuria,  upon  the 
ground  that  her  presence  so  near  to  Pekin 
endangered  the  Chinese  Empire,  the  indepen- 
dence of  Korea  and  the  peace  of  the  Orient. 
So  in  the  hour  of  her  triumph  Japan  was  to 
be  humiliated;  the  fruits  of  her  victory 
snatched  from  her,  precisely  as  the  "  Berlin 
Treaty  "  yi  1879,  had  torn  from  Russia  the 
fruits  <)f  her  Turkish  victories !  Japan  wasted 
no  time  in  protests,  but  quietly  withdrew  and, 
as  it  is  significantly  said,  "  proceeded  to  double 
her  army  and  treble  her  navy ! " 


266         A  SHORT  HISTORY  OP  RUSSIA. 

As  the  protector  of  Chinese  interests  Russia 
was  in  position  to  ask  a  favor;  she  asked 
and  obtained  permission  to  carry  the  Siberian 
railway  in  a  straight  line  through  Manchuria, 
instead  of  following  the  Amur  in  its  great 
northward  sweep.  The  Japanese  word  for 
statesman  also  means  chess-player.  Russian 
diplomatists  had  played  their  game  well.  In 
serving  China,  they  had  incidentally  removed 
the  Japanese  from  a  position  which  blocked 
their  own  game,  and  had  at  the  same  time 
opened  a  way  for  their  railway  across  that 
waiting  gap  in  Northern  Manchuria. 

Just  three  years  after  these  events  Germany, 
by  way  of  indemnity  for  the  murder  of  two 
missionaries,  compelled  China  to  lease  to  her 
the  province  of  Shantung.  Russia  immedi- 
ately demanded  similar  privileges  in  the  Liao- 
Tung  peninsula.  China,  beaten  to  her  knees, 
could  not  afford  to  lose  the  friendship  of  the 
Tsar,  and  granted  the  lease;  and  when  per- 
mission was  asked  to  have  a  branch  of  the 
Russian  railway  run  from  Harbin  through  the 
length  of  this  leased  territory  to  Port  Arthur, 
humbly  conceded  that  too. 

With  wonderful  smoothness  everything  had 
moved  toward  the  desired  end.  To  be  sure, 


A  SHORT  HISTORY  OP  RUSSIA.          267 

the  tenure  of  the  peninsula  was  only  by  lease, 
and  in  no  way  different  from  that  of  Shantung 
by  Germany.  There  was  no  pretext  in  sight 
for  garrisoning  the  dismantled  fort  at  Port 
Arthur,  but  the  fates  had  hitherto  opened 
closed  doors  and  might  do  it  again.  And  so 
she  waited.  And  while  she  waited  the  branch 
road  from  Harbin  moved  swiftly  down  to 
Mukden,  and  on  through  the  Manchurian 
peninsula,  and  Port  Arthur  was  in  direct  line 
of  communication  with  St.  Petersburg! 

In  1900  the  anti-foreign  insurrection  known 
as  the  "  Boxer  war "  broke  out  in  China. 
Russia,  in  common  with  all  the  Great  Powers 
(now  including  Japan),  sent  troops  for  the 
protection  of  the  imperiled  legations  at  Pekin. 
Nothing  could  better  have  served  the  Govern- 
ment of  the  Tsar.  Russian  troops  poured  into 
Manchuria,  and  the  new  road  from  Harbin 
bore  the  Tsar's  soldiers  swiftly  down  to  Port 
Arthur.  The  fort  was  garrisoned,  and  work 
immediately  commenced — probably  upon  plans 
already  drawn — to  make  of  this  coveted  spot 
what  Nature  seemed  to  have  designed  it  to  be 
— the  Gibraltar  of  the  East. 

The  Western  Powers  had  not  been  unob- 
servant of  these  steady  encroachments  upon 


268          A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 

Chinese  territory,  and  while  a  military  occu- 
pation of  the  peninsula  was  necessary  at  this 
time,  it  was  viewed  with  uneasiness;  but  none 
was  prepared  for  what  followed.  Before  peace 
was  actually  concluded,  Russia  approached 
China  with  a  proposition  for  her  permanent 
occupancy  of — not  the  peninsula  alone,  but  all 
of  Manchuria.  A  mystifying  proposition 
when  we  reflect  that  Japan  was  forced  out  of 
the  southern  littoral  of  Manchuria  because  her 
presence  there  threatened  Korea,  China,  and 
the  peace  of  the  world.  Port  Arthur  was  no 
farther  from  Pekin  and  Seoul  than  it  was  five 
years  before,  and  it  was  much  nearer  to  St. 
Petersburg!  And  as  Russia  had  already  made 
surprising  bounds  from  Nikolaifsk  to  Vladi- 
vostok, and  from  Vladivostok  to  Port  Arthur, 
she  might  make  still  another  to  one  or  both 
of  these  capitals. 

So  limp  and  helpless  had  China  become  since 
the  overthrow  by  Japan  and  the  humiliations 
following  the  "  Boxer  war,"  and  so  compliant 
had  she  been  with  Russia's  demands,  that  the 
United  States,  Great  Britain  and  Japan,  fear- 
ful that  she  would  yield,  combined  to  prevent 
this  last  concession,  which  under  this  pressure 
was  refused,  and  a  pledge  demanded  for  the 


A  SHORT  HISTORY  OP  RUSSIA.          269 

withdrawal  of  troops  before  a  fixed  date,  which 
pledge  Russia  gave.  At  the  specified  dates, 
instead  of  withdrawing  her  troops  from  Man- 
churia, Russia  reopened  negotiations  with 
China,  proposing  new  conditions.  Garrisons 
were  being  strengthened  instead  of  withdrawn. 
Strategic  positions  were  being  fortified  and 
barracks  built  in  rushing  haste.  At  the  same 
time  Russian  infantry  and  bands  of  Cossacks 
were  crossing  the  Yalu  to  protect  Russian  saw- 
mills and  other  industries  which  had  also  crept 
into  Korea.  And  when  the  Korean  Govern- 
ment protested,  Russian  agents  claimed  the 
right  to  construct  railways,  erect  telegraphs  or 
take  any  required  measures  for  the  protection 
of  Russian  settlers  in  Korea;  and  every  dip- 
lomatic attempt  to  open  Manchuria  or  Korea 
to  foreign  trade  and  residents  was  opposed  by 
Russia  as  if  it  were  an  attack  upon  her  own 
individual  rights. 

Surprising  as  this  was  to  all  the  Treaty 
Powers,  it  had  for  Japan  the  added  sting  of 
injustice.  She  had  been  ejected  from  her  own 
territory,  fairly  won  in  war,  because  her  pres- 
ence would  endanger  the  independence  of 
Korea  and  the  peace  of  the  Orient.  She  now 
saw  Russia  in  full  occupation  of  this  very 


*  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 

territory,  and  the  absorption  of  Korea  itself 
threatened. 

And  what  was  the  object  of  all  this  schem- 
ing? Not  more  land !  Certainly  a  nation  own- 
ing more  than  a  sixth  of  the  earth's  surface 
could  not  be  hungering  for  land!  And  no 
doubt  Russia  would  long  ago  gladly  have 
given  one-half  of  Siberia  to  the  sea  in  exchange 
for  a  few  good  harbors  such  as  existed  on  the 
east  coast  of  Korea.  It  was  that  ever-existent 
thirst  for  access  to  the  ocean  which  tempted 
her  into  tortuous  diplomacy,  drawing  her  on 
and  on,  like  the  hand  of  fate.  Manchuria  itself 
would  be  unavailing  unless  she  could  control 
Korea,  which  alone  possessed  the  ocean  facili- 
ties for  which  she  had  struggled  since  the  first 
year  of  her  existence. 

In  the  year  1900  the  Trans-Siberian  Rail- 
way was  completed.  Its  6,600  miles  of  rails, 
if  laid  in  a  straight  line,  would  pass  one- 
quarter  of  the  distance  around  the  earth!  It 
had  traversed  an  unexplored  continent,  creat- 
ing, as  it  moved  along,  homes  for  the  work- 
men, schools  for  their  technical  instruction, 
churches,  hospitals,  inns,  stores;  converting  a 
wilderness,  in  fact,  into  a  semi-civilization 
at  the  rate  of  a  mile  a  day  for  nine  years! 


A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.         271 

And  whereas  in  the  days  of  the  Mongol  sub- 
jection it  required  four  years  for  the  Granfi 
Princes  to  go  from  Moscow  to  Sarai,  near 
Pekin,  to  prostrate  themselves  before  the  Great 
Khan,  many  perishing  by  the  way  from  fatigue 
and  exposure,  the  journey  from  Moscow  to 
Pekin  may  now  be  accomplished  in  two  weeks. 
In  perfect  good  faith  Japan  commenced  her 
task  of  reformation  in  Korea.  But  the  way 
was  obstructed  by  the  large  and  powerful  fam- 
ily of  the  Queen,  who  were,  in  fact,  the  chief 
vampires  in  the  kingdom.  A  few  Korean  mis- 
creants led  by  Japanese  officials  formed  a  plot 
to  get  rid  of  these  people,  seize  the  Govern- 
ment, and  then  administer  the  reforms  them- 
selves. Forcing  their  way  into  the  palace  Oct. 
8,  1895,  there  was  enacted  a  tragedy  similar 
to  the  one  which  recently  horrified  the  world 
in  Servia.  While  the  King  was  being  insulted 
and  dragged  about  by  his  hair,  the  fleeing 
Queen  was  stricken  down  and  stabbed,  several 
members  of  her  family  sharing  the  same  fate. 
She,  it  is  said,  was  then  carried,  still  breathing, 
to  a  grove  in  the  park,  where,  after  having 
kerosene  poured  over  her,  she  was  incinerated. 
Such  was  the  fate  of  the  intriguing  but  fasci- 
nating Queen  of  Korea,  of  whom  Count 


373          A  SHORT  HISTORY  OP  RUSSIA. 

Inouyc  said :  "  She  has  few  equals  in  her  coun- 
try for  shrewdness  and  sagacity,  and  in  the 
power  of  conciliating  enemies  and  attaching 
friends." 

The  King,  a  prisoner  in  his  palace,  allowed 
to  see  or  speak  with  no  one,  unaware  of  the 
death  of  the  Queen  (as  were  all  except  those 
engaged  in  the  plot),  was  compelled  to  sign 
odious  edicts  framed  by  a  cabinet  composed 
of  men  upon  whose  hands  the  blood  of  his 
adored  wife  was  scarcely  dry.  The  first  of 
these  brought  for  his  signature  was  a  royal 
decree  deposing  the  Queen,  "  who  for  33  years 
has  dulled  our  senses,  sold  offices  and  titles," 
etc.,  etc.  "  Since  she  will  not  give  up  her 
wickedness  and  is  hiding  and  plotting  with  low 
fellows,  we  hereby  depose  her  and  degrade  her 
to  the  lowest  rank."  The  King  declared  he 
would  have  both  his  hands  cut  off  before  he 
would  sign  this  infamous  paper,  which  did  not 
prevent  its  appearing  with  his  name  attached. 

After  four  months  of  this  torture  the 
wretched  man  escaped  in  disguise  and  found 
safe  asylum  in  the  Russian  Legation,  where 
he  remained  for  one  year. 

One  of  these  reforming  edicts  signed  under 
compulsion  had  ordered  the  immediate  abolish- 


A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.          273 

ment  of  the  Top  Knot  The  Top  Knot  was 
the  symbol  of  nationality  and  personal  dignity. 
A  man  without  it  was  less  than  nothing,  and 
its  assumption  was  the  most  important  event 
in  his  life.  The  ceremony  was  costly.  But 
what  money  could  be  saved  from  the  officials 
was  freely  given  to  the  sorcerers  and  astrol- 
ogers, who  must  determine  the  proper  mo- 
ment and  place,  and  the  sacrifices  which  would 
be  required  when  their  ancestors  were  in- 
formed of  the  important  event  which  had 
taken  place!  Then,  when  this  horn-shaped 
knot  had  been  covered  by  a  high  hat  of  gauze 
tied  tightly  on  with  ribbons,  the  Korean  arose 
transformed  into  a  being  of  dignity  and  con- 
sequence. It  was  the  abolishment  of  this 
sacred  adornment  which  brought  about  a  re- 
bellion. Those  who  did  not  obey  the  order 
were  hiding  from  the  officials,  while  those  who 
did  were  mobbed  and  in  danger  of  being  killed 
by  the  populace. 

The  King's  first  act  after  his  escape  was  to 
issue  a  royal  proclamation  disclaiming  with 
horror  the  edict  degrading  and  casting  in- 
famous reflections  upon  his  beloved  Queen. 
It  also  rescinded  the  edicts  he  had  signed  under 
compulsion.  It  said :  "  As  to  the  Top  Knot, 


274          A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 

no  one  shall  be  forced.  Do  as  you  please  " ; 
and  he  continues :  "  Traitors  by  their  crimes 
have  made  trouble.  Soldiers,  come  and  pro- 
tect us!  You  are  our  children!  You  are  all 
pardoned.  But  when  you  meet  the  chief 
traitors  "  (naming  them)  "  cut  off  their  heads 
at  once  and  bring  them. 

"  Soldiers,  attend  us  at  the  Russian  Lega- 
tion." 

Within  an  hour  all  were  aware  of  the  repeal 
of  the  Top  Knot  decree,  and  several  of  the 
cabinet  officers  had  been  beheaded  on  the 
streets  of  Seoul. 

Although  the  Government  of  the  Mikado 
was  innocent  of  any  complicity  with  this  crime, 
renegade  Japanese  officials  had  been  leaders 
in  the  plot,  and  Japanese  ascendancy  had  re- 
ceived a  severe  blow.  A  point  had  also  been 
secured  by  Russia,  when  the  King  for  one  year 
ruled  his  kingdom  from  her  legation  at  Seoul. 
It  is  easy  to  conceive  that  the  distracted  man, 
grateful  for  protection,  did  at  this  time,  as  is 
supposed,  consent  to  the  purchase  of  lands  and 
cutting  of  timber  by  the  Russians  on  the  Yalu, 
which  the  following  year  (1896)  expanded 
into  a  grant  of  an  extended  tract,  and  became 
the  centre  of  a  large  Russian  industry  in 


A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.          275 

Northern  Korea.  And  it  is  significant  that 
Admiral  Alexieff  was  one  of  the  prime  movers 
in  this  project,  which  to  Japan  seemed  to  have 
a  thinly  veiled  political  purpose,  and  which 
became,  in  fact,  one  of  the  chief  casus  belli. 

In  1899  the  Tsar  issued  an  order  for  the 
creation  of  a  city  on  the  Bay  of  Talien-Wan; 
and  in  two  years  Dalny  stood  in  massive  com- 
pleteness, with  docks  and  wharves  and  de- 
fences which  had  cost  millions  of  dollars. 
Millions  more  had  been  expended  upon  Port 
Arthur,  and  still  more  millions  upon  the  rail- 
way binding  Manchuria  to  Russia  writh  bands 
of  steel.  This  did  not  look  like  temporary 
occupation ;  like  pitching  her  tent  for  a  passing 
emergency.  Still,  in  the  frequent  interchange 
of  notes  with  the  powers,  there  was  never  an 
acknowledgment  that  a  permanent  occupation 
was  intended.  In  displeasure  at  these  repeated 
violations  of  solemn  pledges  the  Western 
Powers  held  aloof;  the  United  States  and 
Great  Britain,  however,  insistently  declaring 
that  the  "  open-door  "  policy  must  be  main- 
tained, i.  e.,  that  all  nations  must  have  equal 
industrial  and  commercial  opportunities  in 
Manchuria  and  Korea,  and  also  that  the  in- 
tegrity of  China  must  be  preserved. 


a;6         A  SHORT  HISTORY  OP  RUSSIA. 

In  the  hope  of  arriving  at  a  peaceful  adjust- 
ment of  their  differences,  Japan  made  a  propo- 
sition based  upon  mutual  concessions.  She 
would  accept  the  Russian  economic  status  in 
Manchuria  if  Russia  would  recognize  hers  in 
Korea. 

Russia  absolutely  refused  to  admit  Japan's 
right  to  have  anything  whatever  to  say  con- 
cerning Manchuria — the  land  which  eight 
years  before  was  hers  by  right  of  conquest,  and 
from  which  Russia  for  her  own  purposes  had 
ejected  her.  Admiral  Alexieff  was  Viceroy  of 
the  Eastern  Provinces,  and  to  him  the  Tsar 
confided  the  issues  of  peace  or  war.  Confident 
in  her  enormous  weight  and  military  prestige, 
Russia  undoubtedly  believed  that  the  Japan- 
ese must  in  the  end  submit.  But  after  five 
months  of  fruitless  negotiations  the  patience 
of  the  Government  at  Tokio  was  exhausted. 
On  Feb.  8,  1904,  the  Japanese  fleet  made  a  sud- 
den descent  upon  Port  Arthur.  This  act,  so 
audaciously  planned,  resulted  in  the  destruction 
of  battle-ships,  cruisers,  torpedo-boats — nine 
in  all — to  which  were  added  the  day  following 
two  more  battle-ships,  destroyed  at  Chemulpo. 

There  was  dismay  and  grief  at  St.  Peters- 
burg. The  Tsar,  realizing  that  he  had  been 


A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.          277 

misled  regarding  the  chances  of  peace  and  also 
the  military  strength  of  the  foe,  recalled  Ad- 
miral Alexieff  from  Port  Arthur.  Admiral 
Makaroff,  Russia's  military  hero  and  ablest 
commander,  succeeded  him.  Just  as  his  in- 
vigorating influence  was  being  felt  in  awakened 
energy  and  courage,  there  came  another  dis- 
aster more  terrible  than  the  first.  The  Petro- 
pavlovsk,  flag-ship  of  the  fleet,  coming  in  con- 
tact with  a  submarine  mine  or  boat,  was  torn 
to  pieces  and  sank  in  two  minutes,  with  all  on 
board,  including  Admiral  Makaroff  and  his 
entire  staff  of  seventeen  officers. 

Still  benumbed  by  these  crushing  blows,  the 
Russians  were  bewildered  by  the  electrical 
swiftness  with  which  the  campaign  developed, 
moving  on  lines  almost  identical  with  those  in 
the  war  with  China  ten  years  before.  A 
miracle  of  discipline  and  minute  perfection  in 
method  and  detail,  the  Mikado's  army  of  little 
men  first  secured  control  in  Korea,  then  the 
command  of  the  sea.  Then  one  army  division 
crossed  the  Yalu  with  three  converging  lines, 
moving  toward  Mukden,  pressing  a  retreat- 
ing army  before  them.  Then,  still  moving  in 
the  grooves  of  the  last  war,  there  was  a  land- 
ing of  troops  at  Pitsewo,  threatening  Dalny 


278         A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 

and  Port  Arthur,  the  latter  already  isolated, 
with  railroad  and  telegraphic  lines  cut.  See- 
ing the  capture  of  Dalny  was  imminent,  with- 
out a  pause  the  Russians  mined  the  harbor, 
docks  and  defences  which  had  cost  millions  of 
dollars,  and  the  city  created  by  fiat  was  by  fiat 
doomed  to  destruction. 

Behind  this  life  and  death  struggle  with  a 
foreign  foe,  another  struggle  nearer  home  was 
being  profoundly  affected  by  these  unexpected 
calamities.  An  unpopular  war  cannot  afford 
to  be  an  unsuccessful  one.  This  clash  with 
Japan  was  distinctly  the  outcome  of  bureau- 
cratic ambitions  and  policy.  It  had  not  one 
single  issue  in  which  the  people  who  were 
fighting  its  battles  and  bearing  its  burdens  were 
even  remotely  interested.  And  then  again — a 
despotism  must  not  show  signs  of  weakness. 
Its  power  lies  in  the  fiction  of  its  invincibility. 
Liberals  and  Progressives  of  all  shades,  wise 
and  not  wise,  saw  their  opportunity.  Finns 
and  Poles  grew  bolder.  The  air  was  thick 
with  threats  and  demands  and  rumors  of  revolt. 

At  this  critical  moment  M.  Von  Plehve,  the 
leader  of  the  party  of  reaction,  the  very  incar- 
nation of  the  spirit  of  old  Russia,  of  Pobie- 
donostseff  and  the  Holy  Synod,  was  in  power. 


A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.          279 

In  1903  there  had  occurred  a  shocking  mas- 
sacre of  Jews  at  Kishineff.  This  culmination 
of  a  prolonged  anti-Semitic  agitation  was 
quickly  followed  by  an  imperial  edict,  prom- 
ising, among  other  reforms,  religious  liberty 
for  all.  With  M.  de  Witte,  the  leader  of 
the  progressive  party,  to  administer  this  new 
policy,  a  better  day  seemed  to  be  dawning. 
But  under  the  benumbing  pressure  of  auto- 
cratic influences,  and  with  his  characteristic 
infirmity  of  purpose,  the  Tsar  almost  imme- 
diately removed  M.  de  Witte,  replacing  him 
with  M.  Von  Plehve,  in  whose  hands  the  re- 
forming edict  became  practically  inoperative, 
and  in  fact  all  reforms  impossible. 

On  June  15,  1904,  General  Bobrikov,  the  re- 
cently appointed  Russian  Governor  of  Finland, 
was  assassinated  by  the  son  of  a  Finnish  Sen- 
ator within  the  walls  of  the  Senate.  Quickly 
following  this,  July  28th,  M.  Von  Plehve  was 
killed  on  the  streets  of  St.  Petersburg  by  the 
explosion  of  a  dynamite  bomb.  The  Tsar 
recognized  the  meaning  of  these  events,  and 
quickly  appointed  Prince  Mirski,  known  by 
his  liberal  tendencies,  to  Von  Plehve's  place  in 
the  Ministry  of  the  Interior.  One  of  the  first 
acts  of  the  new  minister  was  the  authorizing 


a8o         A  SHORT  HISTORY  OP  RUSSIA. 

of  a  meeting  of  all  the  Presidents  of  the 
Zemstvos  for  consultation  over  national  con- 
ditions. When  it  is  recalled  that  the  Zemstvo 
is  a  Peasants'  Court,  that  it  is  a  representative 
assembly  of  the  humblest  class  in  the  Empire, 
and  a  gift  which  accompanied  emancipation 
bestowed  for  their  own  protection — when  this 
is  remembered,  we  realize  the  full  significance 
of  this  act  of  M.  Von  Plehve's  successor.  This 
first  conference  of  the  heads  of  the  Zemstvos, 
•which  met  at  Moscow,  Nov.,  1904,  by  per- 
mission of  Prince  Mirski,  contained  the  germ 
of  a  representative  government.  It  was  an 
acknowledgment  of  a  principle  hitherto  de- 
nied; a  recognition  never  before  made  of  the 
right  of  the  people  to  come  together  for  the 
purpose  of  discussing  measures  of  govern- 
mental policy. 

In  the  meantime  the  Japanese,  irresistible  as 
fate,  were  breaking  down  one  after  another  of 
the  supposed  impregnable  defences  about  Port 
Arthur ;  climbing  over  hills  of  their  own  dead, 
fathers,  sons,  and  brothers,  in  order  to  do  it. 
Within  the  beleaguered  fort  the  supply  of  am- 
munition was  running  low,  only  one-quarter 
of  the  defenders  were  left,  and  disease  was 
slaying  and  incapacitating  these.  Nearer  and 


A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.          281 

nearer  came  the  rain  of  fire.  In  vain  they 
listened  for  the  booming  of  Kuropatkin's  guns 
sweeping  down  from  the  north.  In  vain  they 
watched  for  the  smoke  of  the  long-promised 
Baltic  fleet  approaching  from  the  south.  No 
rescue  came.  On  the  last  night  of  the  year, 
after  consultation  with  his  officers,  General 
Stoessel  signed  the  conditions  of  capitulation 
to  General  Nogi.  The  key  to  the  Russian 
power  in  the  East  was  lost.  When  the  new 
year  dawned  the  Japanese  flag  floated  from  the 
Citadel  on  the  Golden  Hill,  and  the  greatest 
siege  of  modern  times  was  ended. 

On  Jan.  i,  1905,  General  Stoessel  wrote  to 
his  Imperial  Master :  "  Great  Sovereign,  par- 
don us!  We  have  done  everything  humanly 
possible.  Judge  us,  but  be  merciful ! "  He 
then  goes  on  to  state  the  conditions  which 
would  make  further  resistance  a  wanton  sacri- 
fice of  the  lives  of  those  remaining  in  the  gar- 
rison. 

St.  Petersburg  was  stunned  by  the  receipt 
of  this  intelligence;  and  every  day  added  to  its 
dismay:  Oyama,  leaving  the  captured  fortress 
behind  him,  sweeping  the  Russians  back  from 
Mukden;  Kuropatkin  sending  despairing  mes- 
sages to  the  Tsar?  who,  bewildered  and  trem- 


28a         A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 

bling  before  his  own  subjects  at  home,  was 
still  vibrating  between  the  two  widely  oppos- 
ing influences — the  spirit  of  the  old  despotism, 
and  that  of  a  new  age  which  clamored  to  be 
admitted. 

Rescript  followed  quickly  upon  rescript ;  one 
sounding  as  if  written  by  de  Witte,  the  other  as 
if  dictated  by  Pobiedonostseff ;  while  alarming 
rumors  were  coming  hourly  from  Moscow, 
Finland,  Poland,  the  Crimea,  the  Caucasus; 
and  the  great  fabric  before  which  the  world 
had  trembled  seemed  threatened  at  every  vital 
point. 

In  the  midst  of  these  colossal  disasters  stocd 
a  young  man  not  fashioned  for  great  events — 
from  whom  the  world  and  the  situation  de- 
mand a  statesmanship  as  able  as  Bismarck's, 
a  political  ideal  as  exalted  as  Washington's,  a 
prompt  and  judicious  dealing  with  an  un- 
precedented crisis  worthy  of  Peter  the  Great. 
And  not  finding  this  ample  endowment,  we  call 
him  a  weakling.  It  is  difficult  for  the  Anglo- 
Saxon,  fed  and  nourished  for  a  thousand  years 
upon  the  principles  of  political  freedom  and 
their  application,  to  realize  the  strain  to  which 
a  youth  of  average  ability  is  subjected  when 
he  is  called  upon  to  cast  aside  all  the  things  he 


A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.          283 

has  been  taught  to  reverence, — to  abandon  the 
ideals  he  holds  most  sacred, — to  violate  all  the 
traditions  of  his  ancestors, — to  act  in  direct 
opposition  to  the  counsel  of  his  natural  ad- 
visers; and  to  do  all  these  things  at  the  dicta- 
tion of  men  he  has  been  taught  not  only  to 
distrust,  but  to  hold  in  contempt. 

Chief  among  his  counsellors  is  the  Procurator 
Pobiedonostseff,  head  of  the  "  Holy  Synod," — 
that  evil  genius  of  tvvo  reigns,  who  reminds 
him  of  the  sacredness  of  his  trust,  and  his 
duty  to  leave  his  divine  heritage  to  his  son 
unimpaired  by  impious  reforms.  Next  to  him 
stands  Muravieff,  the  wise  and  powerful  Min- 
ister of  Justice,  creator  of  modern  Siberia,  and 
member  of  the  Court  of  Arbitration  at  The 
Hague,  who  speaks  with  authority  when  he 
tells  him  he  has  not  the  right  to  change  a  po- 
litical system  created  by  his  predecessors;  and 
still  nearer  than  these  are  the  Grand  Dukes,  a 
phalanx  of  uncles  and  imperial  relatives  sur- 
rounding him  with  a  petrified  wall  of  ancient 
prejudices.  Confronting  these  imposing  rep- 
resentatives of  imperial  and  historic  Russia 
are  a  few  more  or  less  discredited  men,  like 
M.  de  Witte  and  Prince  Mirski,  counselling 
and  warning  with  a  freedom  which  would 


*84         A  SHORT  HISTORY  OP  RUSSIA. 

once  have  sent  them  to  Siberia,  and  with  a 
power  to  which  the  bewildered  Nicholas  can- 
not be  indifferent,  and  to  which,  perhaps,  he 
would  gladly  yield  were  it  not  for  the  domi- 
nating sentiment  about  him.  Many  a  man 
who  could  face  a  rain  of  bullets  without  a 
tremor,  would  quail  and  turn  coward  if  sub- 
jected to  the  same  test  before  such  a  cumula- 
tive force  of  opinion. 

But  this  is  not  a  crisis  to  be  settled  in  the 
Council-Chamber,  nor  to  be  decided  by  con- 
vincing arguments,  but  by  the  march  of 
events.  And  events  were  not  slow  in  coming. 

The  assassination  of  the  Grand  Duke  Ser- 
gius,  uncle  of  the  Tsar,  and  the  most  extreme  of 
the  reactionaries  at  Moscow,  of  which  he  was 
governor,  was  the  most  powerful  argument  yet 
presented  for  a  change  of  direction  in  the 
Government ;  and  others  were  near  at  hand. 

The  derangement  of  industrial  conditions 
induced  by  the  war  pressed  heavily  upon  the 
wage-earners;  and  the  agitation  upon  the  sur- 
face, the  threatened  explosions  here  and  there, 
were  only  an  indication  of  the  misery  existing 
in  the  deeps  below.  At  all  industrial  centres 
there  were  strikes  accompanied  by  the  violence 
which  invariably  attends  them. 


A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.          285 

On  the  morning  of  Sunday,  Jan.  22d,  an 
orderly  concourse  of  workmen,  in  conformity 
with  a  plan  already  announced,  were  on  their 
way  to  the  Winter-Palace  bearing  a  petition 
to  the  "  Little  Father,"  who,  if  he  only  knew 
their  wrongs,  would  see  that  justice  was  done 
them.  So  they  were  going  to  tell  him  in  per- 
son of  their  grievances.  The  letter  of  the  pre- 
ceding day  ran  thus : 

"  Sovereign.  We  fear  the  ministers  have 
not  told  you  the  whole  truth.  Your  children, 
trusting  in  you,  have  resolved  to  come  to  the 
Winter  Palace  tomorrow  at  2  P.  M.  to  tell  you 
of  their  needs.  Appear  before  us  and  receive 
our  address  of  devotion." 

Had  these  8,000  or  10,000  men  been  march- 
ing to  the  Winter-Palace  with  rifles  in  their 
hands,  or  with  weapons  of  any  sort  indicating1 
a  violent  purpose,  there  might  have  been  cause 
for  alarm.  But  absolutely  unarmed,  even  for 
their  own  defence,  led  by  an  orthodox  priest 
carrying  an  icon,  these  humble  petitioners  were 
met  by  a  volley  of  rapid  fire  from  repeating 
rifles,  were  cut  down  by  sabres  and  trampled 
by  cavalry,  until  "  policing  "  had  become  an  in- 
discriminate massacre  of  innocent  people  upon 
the  streets,  regardless  of  age  or  sex.  Before 


286          A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 

midnight  the  Tsar  was  miles  away  at  his 
Palace  Tsarskoe-Selo ;  and  there  was  a  new  cry 
heard  in  St.  Petersburg,  a  cry  unfamiliar  to 
Russian  ears, — "  Down  with  the  Tsar ! " 
Those  blood-stains  in  Nevski  Prospect  will  be 
long  in  effacing! 

The  long-looked-for  Baltic  fleet,  commanded 
by  Admiral  Rojestvenski,  was  detained  at  the 
outset  of  its  voyage  by  an  untoward  incident, 
having  fired  into  a  fleet  of  British  fishermen, 
which  was  mistaken  for  the  enemy  in  disguise. 
After  being  acquitted  by  a  court  of  inquiry, 
the  Admiral  proceeded,  his  objective  point  now 
being  changed  from  Port  Arthur  to  Vladivos- 
tock,  the  next  most  critical  point. 

On  May  27— 28th  there  occurred  one  of  the 
most  disastrous  naval  engagements  in  the  an- 
nals of  war,  in  the  Korean  Straits,  near  Tsu- 
shima, where  Admiral  Togo  with  sure  instinct 
of  the  course  which  would  be  taken,  was  lying 
in  wait  under  the  cover  of  darkness  and  fog. 

Nineteen  Russian  vessels  were  destroyed,  the 
Japanese  ships  sustaining  almost  no  injury. 
All  that  remained  of  the  Russian  fleet  was  sur- 
rendered to  Admiral  Togo,  and  Rojestvenski, 
desperately  wounded,  and  all  of  his  surviving 
officers,  were  prisoners  of  war  in  Tokio. 


A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.          287 

With  this  climax  of  Russian  disaster  the  end 
had  come.  Although  Russia  still  doggedly  re- 
fused to  acknowledge  defeat,  and  made  feint 
of  preparation  for  reinforcements  and  future 
triumphs,  the  world  saw  that  there  must  be 
peace;  and  that  the  only  existing  obstacle  was 
the  determination  of  a  proud  nation  not  to  be 
placed  in  a  humiliating  position. 

The  absolute  neutrality  of  the  United  States 
enabled  President  Roosevelt  to  intervene  at  this 
critical  moment  as  no  European  sovereign  could 
have  done.  His  proposal  that  there  should 
be  a  meeting  of  envoys  for  the  discussion  of 
some  peaceable  adjustment  of  their  differences 
was  promptly  accepted  by  both  nations,  and 
with  the  hostile  armies  still  facing  each  other 
in  Manchuria,  arrangements  were  made  for 
the  Peace  Conference  to  be  held  in  the  United 
States  in  August. 

^he  envoys  selected  for  this  mission  were 
M.  de  Witte  and  Baron  Rosen,  Ambassador 
to  the  United  States  from  Russia,  on  the  one 
hand,  and  Baron  Komura,  Minister  of  For- 
eign Affairs  in  Japan,  and  Kogaro  Takahira, 
Minister  at  Washington  from  that  country,  on 
the  other.  If  the  appointment  of  M.  de  Witte 
had  awakened  expectation  of  a  presentation  of 


288          A  SHORT  HISTORY  OP  RUSSIA. 

the  Russian  cause  from  the  view-point  of  a 
progressive  leader,  the  mistake  was  quickly 
discovered.  M.  de  Witte,  performing  a  duty  in- 
trusted to  him  by  his  Imperial  master,  was  quite 
a  different  person  from  de  Witte,  the  exponent 
of  liberal  ideas,  pleading  the  cause  of  an  op- 
pressed people  before  the  Tsar ;  and  an  adaman- 
tine side  of  his  character,  quite  unexpected,  was 
revealed.  The  fencing  between  the  two  skilled 
diplomats,  de  Witte  and  Komura,  afforded  a 
fascinating  study  in  racial  methods  and  char- 
acteristics at  a  high  point  of  development;  the 
impression  left  being  that  the  intense  sincerity 
of  purpose  in  the  Japanese,  and  the  lack  of  it 
in  the  other,  was  the  main  point  of  difference. 
The  Russian  argument  throughout  was  upon 
a  perfectly  insincere  basis.  The  Russian  envoy 
never  once  recognized  that  he  represented  a 
defeated  nation,  steadily  maintaining  the  atti- 
tude of  a  generous  foe  willing  to  stop  fighting 
to  prevent  the  shedding  of  more  blood.  In 
striking  contrast  to  this  was  Baron  Komura's 
calm  presentation  of  his  twelve  peace  pro- 
posals, and  the  sad  sincerity  with  which  he  ten- 
aciously maintained  their  justification  by  the 
results  of  the  war. 

Eight  of  these  proposals,  of  minor  impor- 


A  SHORT  HISTORY  OP  RUSSIA.          289 

tance,  were  accepted,  while  the  four  of  real 
significance  were  at  once  rejected  by  M.  de 
Witte.  These  were :  the  cession  of  the  Island 
of  Saghalien,  already  partly  occupied  by  the 
Japanese  troops;  the  interning  of  all  Russian 
ships  lying  in  Japanese  waters;  an  indemnity 
of  $600,000,000  to  reimburse  Japan  for  the 
cost  of  the  war,  and  a  limitation  of  the  naval 
power  of  Russia. 

Many  times  negotiations  were  on  the  verge 
of  breaking;  at  the  last  of  these  crises,  when 
the  hope  of  an  agreement  was  actually  aban- 
doned and  preparations  were  making  for  de- 
parture, it  is  said,  strong  pressure  was  brought 
to  bear  upon  Japan  by  President  Roosevelt 
which  led  to  a  modification  of  the  terms — a 
modification  so  excessive  that  deep  resentment 
existed  in  Tokio,  and  a  satisfaction  correspond- 
ingly great  was  experienced  in  St.  Petersburg. 
Japan  withdrew  her  demands  for  indemnity 
and  for  acquisition  of  territory  in  the  following 
way :  she  saved  her  adversary  from  the  humili- 
ation of  reimbursing  her  for  the  cost  of  the 
war  by  offering  to  sell  to  Russia  the  northern 
half  of  the  island  in  dispute, — Saghalien, — for 
two-thirds  of  the  sum  she  had  demanded  under 
the  name  of  indemnity. 


290          A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 

The  Russo-Japanese  treaty  of  peace,  signed 
at  Portsmouth  in  August,  1905,  registers  the 
concession  of  all  the  vital  points  in  the  de- 
mands of  the  conquering  nation.  The  popu- 
lar saying,  "  to  the  victor  belong  the  spoils," 
does  not  hold  good  in  Japan!  Twice  has  she 
seen  the  fruits  of  her  splendidly  won  victories 
snatched  from  her  by  the  same  hand;  and 
twice  has  she  looked  with  far-seeing  eyes  into 
the  future,  and  quietly  submitted.  Perhaps  she 
realizes  that  a  time  may  come  when  Russia's 
friendship  will  be  more  valuable  to  her  than 
Saghalien  1 

The  war  was  over.  The  march  of  armies 
had  ceased ;  but  the  march  of  events,  accelerated 
by  the  great  upheaval,  moved  irresistibly  on. 
Realizing  that  something  must  be  done  to 
pacify  the  people,  a  new  and  more  liberal  pol- 
icy was  announced,  with  de  Witte,  now  Prime 
Minister,  in  charge.  Russia  was  to  have  a 
National  Assembly,  a  law-making  body  in 
which  every  class  would  have  representation. 

This  Russian  Parliament  was  to  be  com- 
posed of  two  bodies :  an  Upper  and  a  Lower 
House.  The  one  to  be  called  the  "  Council  of 
the  Empire,"  the  other  the  "  Duma"  These 


A  SHORT  HISTORY  OP  RUSSIA.          291 

were  to  be  convoked  and  prorogued  annu- 
ally by  Imperial  Ukase.  The  President,  Vice- 
President,  and  one-half  the  members  of  the 
Council  of  the  Empire  (consisting  of  178 
members)  were  to  be  appointed  by  the  Tsar; 
twenty-four  more  to  be  elected  by  the  nobility 
and  clergy,  a  very  small  number  by  some  desig- 
nated universities  and  commercial  bodies;  each 
Zemstvo  (of  which  there  are  fifty-one)  being 
entitled  to  one  representative.  The  members 
composing  the  Duma,  or  Lower  House,  were 
to  be  elected  by  the  Electoral  Colleges,  which 
had  in  turn  been  created  by  the  votes  of  the 
people  in  the  various  provinces  of  the  Empire 
for  that  purpose. 

The  two  bodies  were  to  have  equal  rights  in 
initiating  legislation.  But  a  bill  must  pass  both 
Houses  and  then  receive  Imperial  Sanction 
in  order  to  become  a  law;  and  failing  in  this, 
cannot  come  up  again  during  the  same  session. 
Thus  hedged  about  and  thus  constituted,  it  is 
obvious  that  a  conservative  majority  was  per- 
manently secured  and  ways  provided  to  block 
any  anti-imperial  or  revolutionary  legislation 
in  the  Duma.  And  when  it  is  added  that  mat- 
ters concerning  finance  and  treasonable  offences 
were  almost  entirely  in  the  hands  of  the  Coun- 


292          A  SHORT  HISTORY  OP  RUSSIA. 

cil,  we  realize  how  this  gift  of  political  repre- 
sentation to  the  Russian  people  had  been  shorn 
of  its  dangers! 

The  first  National  Assembly  was  opened  by 
the  Tsar  May  10,  1906,  with  the  form  and 
splendor  of  a  court  ceremonial.  It  was  a 
strange  spectacle,  that  solid  body  of  100  peas- 
ants seated  on  the  left  of  the  throne,  intently 
listening  to  the  brief  and  guarded  speech  of 
welcome  to  the  "  representatives  of  the  nation, 
who  had  come  to  aid  him  in  making  laws  for 
their  welfare!"  And  the  first  jarring  note 
came  when  not  one  of  these  men  joined  in  the 
applause  which  followed. 

The  first  Duma  was  composed  of  450  mem- 
bers. The  world  was  watching  this  experi- 
ment, curious  to  find  out  what  sort  of  beings 
have  been  dumbly  supporting  the  weight  of 
the  Russian  Empire.  Almost  the  first  act  was 
a  surprise.  Instead  of  explosive  utterances 
and  intemperate  demands,  the  Duma  formally 
declared  Russia  to  be  a  Constitutional  Mon- 
archy. No  anarchistic  extravagance  could 
have  been  so  disturbing  to  autocratic  Russia 
as  was  this  wise  moderation,  which  at  the 
very  outset  converted  Constitutional  Bureau- 
crats into  Constitutional  Democrats,  thus  im- 


A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.          293 

mensely  strengthening  the  people's  party  at  the 
expense  of  the  Conservatives.  The  leaders  in 
the  Duma  knew  precisely  what  they  wanted, 
and  how  to  present  their  demands  with  a  clear- 
ness, a  power,  and  a  calm  determination  for 
which  Russia, — and  indeed  that  greater  au- 
dience, the  world  at  large, — was  quite  unpre- 
pared. That  this  seriously  alarmed  the  Im- 
perial party  was  proved  by  an  immediate 
strengthening  of  the  defences  about  the  throne 
by  means  of  a  change  in  what  is  called  the 
Fundamental  Laws.  These  Fundamental  Laws 
afford  a  rigid  framework,  an  immovable  foun- 
dation for  the  authority  of  the  Emperor  and 
his  Cabinet  Ministers. 

Repairs  in  the  Constitution  of  the  United 
States  have  been  usually  in  the  direction  of 
increased  liberties  for  the  people.  The  Tsar, 
on  the  contrary,  aided  by  his  Cabinet  and  high 
Government  officials,  drafted  a  new  edition 
of  the  Fundamental  Laws  suited  to  a  new 
danger. 

The  changes  made  were  all  designed  to  build 
up  new  defences  around  the  throne,  and  to  in- 
trench more  firmly  every  threatened  preroga- 
tive. The  Tsar  was  deliberately  ranging  him- 
self with  the  bureaucratic  party  instead  of  the 


294          A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 

party  of  his  people;  and  the  hot  indignation 
which  followed  found  expression  in  bitter  and 
powerful  arraignment  of  the  Government,  even 
to  the  extent  of  demanding  the  resignation  of 
the  Ministry.  What  was  at  first  a  rift,  was 
becoming  an  impassable  chasm. 

If  Count  Witte  had  disappointed  the  Liberals 
by  his  lukewarmness  and  by  what  they  con- 
sidered an  espousal  of  the  conservative  cause, 
he  was  even  less  acceptable  to  the  Bureaucrats, 
to  whom  he  had  from  the  first  been  an  object 
of  aversion — an  aversion  not  abated  by  his 
masterly  diplomacy  at  Portsmouth,  for  which 
he  received  only  a  grudging  acknowledgment. 
Whatever  may  be  the  verdict  of  the  future, 
with  its  better  historic  perspective,  whether 
justly  or  unjustly,  Count  Witte  had  lost  his 
hold  upon  the  situation ;  and  the  statesman  who 
had  been  the  one  heroic  figure  in  Russia  was  no 
longer  the  man  of  the  hour.  At  all  events,  his 
resignation  of  the  head  of  the  Ministry  during 
this  obnoxious  attempt  to  nullify  the  gift  of 
popular  representation  was  significant;  and  the 
name  of  de  Witte  is  not  associated  with  this 
grave  mistake  made  by  the  master  he  has  tried 
to  serve. 

The  reforms  insistently  demanded  by  the 


A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.          295 

Duma  were  as  follows : — The  responsibility  of 
the  Ministry  to  that  body,  as  the  representative 
of  the  people;  the  distribution  to  the  working 
peasants  of  the  lands  held  by  the  Crown  and 
the  clergy;  a  General  Amnesty,  with  the  re- 
lease of  all  political  prisoners;  and  the  aboli- 
tion of  the  death  penalty. 

This  was  virtually  a  sweeping  demand  for 
the  surrender  of  the  autocratic  principle,  the 
very  principle  the  Fundamental  Laws  had  just 
been  revised  to  render  more  inviolable.  The 
issue  was  now  narrowed  down  within  definite 
limits.  It  was  a  conflict  for  power,  for  admin- 
istrative control,  and  it  was  a  life-and-death 
struggle  between  the  Tsar  and  his  people. 

Printed  reports  of  the  debates  were  sent 
broadcast,  and  for  the  first  time  since  Russia 
came  into  being  the  peasantry  saw  things  as 
they  really  were.  They  had  always  attributed 
their  wrongs  to  the  nobility,  who,  they  be- 
lieved, had  cheated  them  out  of  their  land 
and  their  rights  under  the  Emancipation  Act. 
But  now  it  was  not  the  nobility,  not  the  hated 
Boyars  who  were  cruelly  refusing  to  give 
them  land  and  liberty,  but  it  was  the  Little 
Father,  he  whom  they  had  always  trusted  and 
adored ! 


296          A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 

It  is  a  critical  moment  when  the  last  illusion 
drops  from  the  eyes  of  a  confiding  people.  The 
Duma  at  this  moment  was  engaged  in  a  task 
of  supreme  difficulty  and  responsibility.  Mill- 
ions of  people  hung  upon  its  words  and  acts. 
A  group  of  inexperienced  but  terribly  deter- 
mined men  were  facing  an  equally  determined 
group  of  well-seasoned  officials,  veterans  in  the 
art  of  governing.  Never  was  there  greater 
need  of  calmness  and  wisdom,  and  at  this  very 
time  a  wild  revolutionary  faction  was  doing 
its  utmost  to  inflame  the  passions  of  a  peas- 
antry already  maddened  with  a  sense  of  wrong 
and  betrayal,  who  in  gusts  of  destructive  rage 
were  burning,  pillaging,  and  carrying  terror 
into  the  remotest  parts  of  the  Empire. 

Even  while  the  Duma  was  demanding  this 
larger  measure  of  liberty  and  of  authority  over 
the  Ministry,  that  body  had  already  initiated 
and  put  in  force  new  and  more  vigorous 
methods  of  suppression.  Under  M.  Durnovo, 
Minister  of  the  Interior,  a  law  had  been  pro- 
mulgated known  as  the  Law  of  Reinforced 
Defense.  Under  the  provisions  of  this  law, 
high  officials,  or  subordinates  designated  by 
them,  were  clothed  with  authority  to  arrest, 
imprison,  and  punish  with  exile  or  death,  with- 


A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA          297 

out  warrant,  without  accusation,  or  any  judi- 
cial procedure  whatever. 

On  July  1 6,  1906,  M.  Makaroff,  Assistant 
Secretary  of  the  Interior,  appeared  personally 
before  the  Duma;  and  in  answer  to  thirty- 
three  interpellations  concerning  as  many  spe- 
cific cases  of  imprisonment  without  resort  to 
the  courts,  frankly  replied :  "  Yes.  We  have 
held  the  persons  named  in  prison  for  the  time 
mentioned  without  warrant  or  accusation ;  and 
some  of  these,  and  many  others,  have  been 
exiled  to  Siberia.  But  it  is  a  precaution  de- 
manded by  the  situation  and  the  circumstances ; 
a  precaution  we  are  authorized  to  take  by  the 
Law  of  Reinforced  Defense." 

In  October  of  last  year  (1905)  the  world 
was  made  glad  by  a  manifesto  issued  by  the 
Tsar  containing  these  words :  "  In  obedience 
to  our  inflexible  will,  we  hereby  make  it  the 
duty  of  our  Government  to  give  to  our  be- 
loved people  freedom  of  conscience,  freedom 
of  speech,  freedom  of  public  assembly,  free- 
dom of  association,  and  real  inviolability  of 
personal  rights."  The  Tsar  had  also,  with 
the  same  solemnity,  declared :  "  No  law  shall 
take  effect  without  the  sanction  of  the  Duma, 
which  is  also  to  have  participation  in  the 


298          A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA 

control  of  the  officials."  Yet,  Ministers  and 
Governors  General,  or  subordinates  appointed 
by  them,  may  at  their  own  discretion  imprison, 
exile,  or  kill  in  defiance  of  Imperial  command, 
and  find  ample  protection  in  the  Law  of  Rein- 
forced Defense! 

The  free  handling  of  these  governmental 
methods  in  the  Duma,  and  the  immediate 
world-wide  publicity  given  to  these  revela- 
tions, if  allowed  to  continue,  must  inevitably 
destroy  the  cause  of  Russian  Bureaucracy. 
There  were  but  two  courses  open  to  the  Tsar. 
He  must  either  surrender  the  autocratic  prin- 
ciple, and  in  good  faith  carry  out  his  pledges 
and  share  his  authority  with  his  people,  or  he 
must  disperse  a  representative  body  which 
flagrantly  defied  his  Imperial  will.  He  chose 
the  latter  course. 

Five  days  after  the  examination  of  M. 
Makaroff,  on  July  21,  1906,  the  first  Rus- 
sian Parliament  was  dissolved  by  Imperial 
ukase. 

The  reason  assigned  for  this  was  that,  "  in- 
stead of  applying  themselves  to  the  work  of 
productive  legislation,  they  have  strayed  into  a 
sphere  beyond  their  competence,  and  have  been 
making  comments  on  the  imperfections  of  the 


A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA          299 

Fundamental  Laws,  which  can  only  be  modi- 
fied by  our  Imperial  will." 

The  Tsar  at  the  same  time  declared  his  im- 
mutable purpose  to  maintain  the  institution  of 
Parliament,  and  named  March  5,  1907,  as  the 
date  of  the  convening  of  a  new  Duma. 

A  body  of  186  Representatives,  including 
the  Constitutional  and  Conservative  members 
of  the  Duma,  immediately  reassembled  at  Vi- 
borg  in  Finland,  where,  in  the  few  hours  be- 
fore their  forcible  dispersion  by  a  body  of 
military,  they  prepared  an  address  to  "  The 
Citizens  of  All  Russia."  This  manifesto  was 
a  final  word  of  warning,  in  which  the  people 
were  reminded  that  for  seven  months,  while 
on  the  brink  of  ruin,  they  are  to  stand  without 
representation ;  also  reminding  them  of  all  that 
may  be  done  in  that  time  to  undermine  their 
hopes,  and  to  obtain  a  pliable  and  subservient 
Parliament,  if,  indeed,  any  Parliament  at  all 
be  convoked  at  the  time  promised  by  the  Tsar. 

In  view  of  all  this  they  were  solemnly  ab- 
jured not  to  give  "  one  kopek  to  the  throne, 
or  one  soldier  to  the  army,"  until  there  exists 
a  popular  representative  Parliament. 

The  hand  of  autocracy  is  making  a  final 
and  desperate  grasp  upon  the  prerogatives  of 


300        A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA 

the  Crown.  When  the  end  will  come,  and  how 
it  will  come2  cannot  be  foretold.  But  it  needs 
no  prophetic  power  to  see  what  that  end  will 
be.  The  days  of  autocracy  in  Russia  are  num- 
bered. A  century  may  be  all  too  short  for  the 
gigantic  task  of  habilitating  a  Russian  people 
— making  the  heterogeneous  homogeneous,  and 
converting  an  undeveloped  peasantry  into  a 
capable  citizenship.  The  problem  is  unique, 
and  one  for  which  history  affords  no  parallel. 
In  no  other  modern  nation  have  the  life  forces 
been  so  abnormal  in  their  adjustment.  And 
it  is  only  because  of  the  extraordinary  quality 
of  the  Russian  mind,  because  of  its  instinct 
for  political  power,  and  its  genius  for  that  in- 
strument of  power  hitherto  known  as  diplo- 
macy— it  is  only  because  of  these  brilliant 
mental  endowments  that  this  chaotic  mass  of 
ethnic  barbarism  has  been  made  to  appear  a 
fitting  companion  for  her  sister  nations  in  the 
family  of  the  Great  Powers. 

It  is  vain  to  expect  the  young  Tsar  to  set 
about  the  task  of  demolishing  the  autocratic 
system  created  by  his  predecessors  and  ances- 
tors. That  work  is  in  charge  of  more  august 
agents.  It  is  perishing  by  natural  process  be- 
cause it  is  vicious,  because  it  is  out  of  har- 


A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA        301 

mony  with  its  environment,  and  because  the 
maladjusted  life  forces  are  moving  by  eternal 
laws  from  the  surface  to  their  natural  home 
in  the  centre.  And  we  may  well  believe  that 
the  fates  are  preparing  a  destiny  commensu- 
rate with  the  endowments  of  a  great — perhaps 
the  greatest — of  the  nations  of  the  earth. 

Let  it  not  be  supposed  that  it  is  the  moujik, 
the  Russian  peasant  in  sheepskin,  with  toil- 
worn  hands,  who  has  conducted  that  brilliant 
parliamentary  battle  in  the  Duma.  Certain 
educational  and  property  qualifications  are  re- 
quired for  eligibility  to  membership  in  that 
body,  which  would  of  necessity  exclude  that 
humble  class.  It  is  not  the  emancipated  serf, 
but  it  is  rural  Russia  which  the  Duma  repre- 
sented, and  the  vastness  of  the  area  covered 
by  that  term  is  realized  when  one  learns  that 
of  the  450  members  constituting  that  body 
only  eighteen  were  from  cities.  It  is  the  lead- 
ers of  this  vast  rural  population,  members  of 
ancient  princely  families  or  owners  of  great 
landed  estates,  these  are  the  men  who  are 
coming  out  of  long  oblivion  to  help  rule  the 
destinies  of  a  new  Russia.  Men  like  Prince 
Dolgorouki,  some  of  them  from  families  older 
than  the  Romanoffs — such  men  it  is  who  were 


303          A    SHORT  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA 

the  leaders  in  the  Duma.  They  have  been  for 
years  studying  these  problems,  and  working 
among  the  Zemstvos.  They  are  country  gen- 
tlemen of  the  old  style, — sturdy,  practical,  im- 
aginative, idealistic,  and  explosive;  powerful 
in  debate,  bringing  just  at  the  right  moment 
a  new  element,  a  new  force.  Happy  is  Russia 
in  possessing  such  a  reserve  of  splendid  energy 
at  this  time.  And  if  the  moujik  is  not  in  the 
forefront  of  the  conflict,  he,  too,  affords  a 
boundless  ocean  of  elementary  force — he  is  the 
simple  barbarian,  who  will  perhaps  be  needed 
to  replenish  with  his  fresh,  uncorrupted  blood 
the  Russia  of  a  new  generation. 


LIST  OF  PRINCES. 


GRAND  PRINCES  OF  KIEF. 

Rurik, 862-879 

Oleg  (Brother  of  Rurik,  Regent),       .       .       .  879-912 

Igor  (Son  of  Rurik), 912-945 

Olga  (Wife  of  Igor,  Regent),        ....  945-964 

Sviatoslaf 964-972 

Vladimir  (Christianized  Russia,  992),        .       .  972-1015 

Yaroslaf  (The  Legislator), 1015-1054 

(Close  of  Heroic  Period.) 

Isiaslaf, 1054-1078 

Vsevolod, 1078-1093 

Sviatopolk,    .........  1093-1113 

Vladimir  Monomakh,        .       .       .       .       .       .  1113-1125 

(Throne  Disputed  by  Prince  of  Suzdal.) 

Isiaslaf, 1146-1155 

George  Dolgoruki  (Last  Grand  Prince  of  Kief)  1155-1169 

(Fall  of  Kief,  1169.) 

Andrew  Bogoliubski   (First   Grand  Prince  of 

Suzdal), 1169-1174 

George  II.  (Dolgoruki), 1212-1238 

Yaroslaf  II.  (Father  of  Alexander  Nevski  and 
Grandfather   of   Daniel,    First   Prince   of 

Moscow), 1238-1246 

PRINCES   OF  MOSCOW. 

Daniel  (Son  of  Alexander  Nevski),    .       .       .  1260-1303 

Iri  (George)  Danielovich 1303-1325 

Ivan  I., 1328-1341 

Simeon  (The  Proud), 1341-1353 

Ivan  II.  (The  De"bonair), *353-i359 

303 


304  LIST  OF  PRINCES. 

PRINCES    OF    MOSCOW    AND    GRAND    PRINCES 
OF  SUZDAL. 

Dmitri  Donskoi,  .       .......  1363-1389 

Vasili  Dmitrievich  ........   1389-1425 

Vasili  I.  (The  Blind,  Prince  of  Moscow,  Nov- 

gorod, and  Suzdal),   ......   1425-1462 

GRAND  PRINCES  OF  ALL  THE  RUSSIAS. 

Ivan  III.  (The  Great),    ......  1462-1505 

Vasili  II.,      .........  1505-1533 

TSARS  OF  RUSSIA. 

Ivan  IV.  (the  Terrible),  ......  1533-1584 

Feodor  Ivanovich,      .......  1584-1598 

Boris  Godunof  (Usurper),      .....  1598-1605 

The  False  Dmitri,      .......  1605-1606 

Vasili  Shuiski  .........  1606-1609 

Mikhail  Romanoff,     .......  1613-1645 

Alexis  (Son  of  former  and  Father  of  Peter  the 

Great),    .........  1645-1676 

Feodor  Alexievich  ........  1676-1682 


Peter  I.  (The  Great),       ......   1696-1725 

Catherine  I.,         ........  X725-I727 

Peter  II.  (Son  of  Alexis  and  Grandson  of  Peter 

the  Great  and  Eudoxia),  ....  1727-1730 
Anna  Ivanovna  (Daughter  of  Ivan  V.,  Niece 

of  Peter  I.)  ........   1730-1740 

Ivan  VI.  (Infant  Nephew  of  former  Sovereign),  1740-1741 
Elizabeth  Petrovna  (Daughter  of  Peter  I.  and 

Catherine),    ........   1741-1761 

Peter  III.  (Nephew  of  Elizabeth  Petrovna; 

reigned  five  months,  assassinated),    .       .  1762 

Catherine  II.  (Wife  of  Peter  III.),     •       •       •   1762-1796 
Paul  I.  (Son  of  former),         .....   1796-1801 

Alexander  I.,        ........   1801-1825 

Nicholas  I.  ........       .  1825-1855 

Alexander  II  ..........   1855-1881 

Alexander  III.,     ....  .....  1881-1894 

Nicholas  II  .....  ....  1894- 


INDEX. 


Absolutism,  244 
Act  of  Union,  71 
Adashef,  87,  88 
Akhmet  (Khan),  76 
Alexander  I,  164,  172,  175,  177, 

178,  179,  183,  184,  186 
Alexander   II,   213,   217,   223, 

228,  234,  236 
Alexander  III,  239 
Alexieff,  Admiral,  275,  276 
Alexis,  105,  107,  109,  no,  in, 

141,  142 

Alexis  Orlof,  154,  166,  168 
Alfred,  Duke  of  Edinburgh,  224 
Alice  (Princess),  242 
Alma  (the),  210 
Anarchism,  232 
Anastasia,  86,  88,  95,  103 
Andrassy,  227 
Angles,  25 
Anna,  28,  29 

Anna  Ivanovna,  142,  146,  148 
Anthony,  75 
Appanages,  26,  34 
Apraxin,  144,  150 
Arabel  Steppes,  4 
^raktcneef,  185 
Arvan,  8,  14 
Asia  Minor,  70 


Asiatic  Mongols,  46 
Askold,  19 
Austerlitz,  177 
Austria,  170,  i  So 
Azof,  Sea  of,  115 

Bacon,  Francis,  91 

Baikal,  Lake,  253 

Balthazi,  133 

Baltic  (the),  13,  43,  59,  124. 

Baltic  Fleet,  286 

Barren  Steppes,  4 

Bashi-Bazuks,  225 

Basil,  28 

Batui,  48 

Beaconsfield,  224,  227 

Berlin,  Treaty  of,  227 

Bessarabia,  227 

Biron,  146,  148 

Bismarck,  227 

Black  Lands,  4,  39 

Black  Sea,  6,  12,  115,  214 

Bogolinbski  (Andrew),  40,  62, 

83 

Bohemians,  13,  27 
Book  of  Instruction,  161 
Book  of  Pedigrees,  no 
Boris  Godunof,  96,  97,  99,  100, 

101 


3°5 


INDEX. 


Bosnia,  224,  226,  227 
Bosphorus  (the),  20,  71 
Boxer  War,  267 
Boyars,  27,  38,  43,  48,  51 
Bremen,  45 
Britain,  25 
Buddhism,  257 
Bulgaria,  24,  74,  226,  227 
Bulgarians,  n,  27 
Burnett,  Bishop,  120 
Byzantine,  36,  49,  66 
Byzantine  Empire,  n,  13,  72 
Byzantium,  19,  27,  31,  32,  33, 
36»  72»  74 

Calendar  (new)  138 

Candia,  204 

Carpathians,  3 

Caspian  Sea,  12 

Cathay,  47 

Catherine  I,  130,  132,  143 

Catherine   II,    155,    157,    159, 

160,  165,  166,  169,  175 
Catholics,  27 
Caucasus,  3 
Centaurs,  14 
Charlemagne,  13 
Charles  Martel,  72 
Charles  I,  108 
Charles  II,  108 
Charles  X,  192 
Charles  XI,  124 
Charles  XII,  125,  126,  127, 128, 

129,  132,  133,  140 
Charlotte  (Princess),  213 
Charlotte  of  Brunswick,  142 
Chemulpho  (Battle  of),  276 


Chersonesos,  7 
China,  47,  253 
China-Japan  War,  254,  259, 

263 

Chopin,  164 
Christian  IX,  224 
Church  of  Bethlehem,  206 
Cincinnati,  Order  of,  163 
Circassia,  176 
Code  Napoleon,  180 
Commune  (the),  15 
Confucianism,  257 
Constantine,  Grand  Duke,  164, 

172,  187,  188,  189,  193 
Constantinople,  18,  20,  23,  28, 

36,  39,  46,  64,  70 
Constitution,  292 
Cossacks,  101,  105,  106 
Council  of  the  Empire,  290,  291 
Court  of  Arbitration,  281 
Cracow,  50,  102 
Crimea,  7,  77,  115,  164 
Crimean  War,  210 
Cyprus,  227 

Dagmar,  224  •     . 

Daimios,  257 

Dalny,  275,  278,  279 

Daniel,  270 

Danube  (the),  23 

Dir,  19 

Dmitri,  95,  96,  101,  102 

Dmitri  Donoskoi,  69 

Dnieper  (the),  4,  12,  19,  39,  42 

Dolgorukis,  83 

Dolgoruki  (Yuri),  40,  61,  62,  63 

Dolgoruki  (Prince),  177,  301 


INDEX. 


307 


Don  (the),  69,  101 
Drevlins  (the),  21,  26 
Drujina,  37,  38,  52 
Drujiniki  (the),  46 
Duma,  290,  291,  292,  295,  296, 

297,  298,  299,  301 
Durnovo,  M.,  296 

Eastern  Empire  (the),  38 
Eastern  Question,  198,  203 
Ecclesiastical  States,  30 

Egypt,  ^o.  i?1 

Electoral  College,  291 
Elizabeth  Petrovna,   140,   142, 

147,  148,  149,  152 
Emancipation  Law,  220,  295 
Etrogruhl,  70 
Eudoxia,  130,  141 

Feodor,  95,  96,  97,  105,  no, 

in 

Ferdinand,  82,  201 
Finland,  184,  222 
Finns,  8,  u,  12,  17,  43,  44 
Florence,  41 
Formosa,  264 
Francis  II,  178 
Francis  Joseph,  202 
Franks,  25 
Frederick  II,  50 
Frederick  the  Great,  150,  153 
Fundamental  Laws,  293,  295, 

299 

Galitsuin  (Prince),  113,  144 
Gaul,  25 
Gautama,  257 


Genghis  Kahn,  47,  48 

Georgia,  176 

German  Knights,  68 

German  Orders,  45,  60 

Glinski  (Anna),  87 

Glinski  (Helena),  85 

Gliick,  130 

Godwin,  96 

Golden  Horde,  69,  71 

Gortchakof,  213,  223,  227 

Goths  (the),  10 

Grand  Principality  (the),  66 

Great  Desert  of  Gobi,  52 

Great  Patriarchs,  66 

Great  Tower  of  Ivan,  183 

Greece,  72 

Greek  Church,  30,  31,  71,  72, 

226 

Greeks  (the),  6,  24,  27 
Gustavus  Adolphus,  105 

Hague  (the),  119,  281 
Hague,  the  Congress,  242 
Hamburg,  45 
Hanseatic  League,  45 
Harold,  96 

Hastings,  Lady  Mary,  92 
Haynau,  202 
Hedwig,  60 
Helen,  22 
Helsingfors,  241 
Henry  VIII,  82 
Herodotus,  7 

Herzegovina,  224,  226,  227 
Hindostan,  170 
Hohenzollern,  45 
Holy  Alliance,  85 


INDEX. 


Holy  Roman  Empire,  13 
Holy  Shrines,  206 
Holy  Synod,  135 
Horde  (the),  67 
Hungary,  50,  68 
Huns,  47 

lagello,  59,  60 

Icon,  285 

Igor,  19,  20,  21,  23,  25 

Imperator,  138 

Indemnity,  289 

India,  171 

Inouye,  Count,  272 

Ionian  Isles,  170 

Isabella,  82 

Islamism,  56 

Ito,  Marquis,  262 

Ivan  I,  66 

Ivan  III  (the  Great),  72,  73,  74, 

75.  81,  84 
Ivan  IV  (the  Terrible),  75,  84, 

85,  86,  88,  92,  96,  101,  113, 

249 

Ivan  (the  Imbecile),  112,  130 
Ivan  Mazeppa,  127,  128,  130 
Ivan  V,  146 
Ivan  VI,  148,  154,  155 
Ivan  Shuvalof,  150 

Japan,  256 

Japan-Korea  Treaty,  1876,  261 
Japan  Treaty  with  U.  S.,  1854, 
258 

Kaminski,  Battle  of,  163 
Karz,  226 


Kazan,  77 

Khazarui,  the,  17,  23 

Kiel,  18,  19,  21,  22,  23,  25,  26, 

27,  28,  34,  35,  36,  39,  40,  42, 

49,  61 

Kishineff,  279 
Komura,  Baron,  278,  288 
Knout,  30 
Konigsberg,  45 
Koreans,  259 
Kosciusko,  163 
Kossuth,  20 1,  202 
Koulaks,  230 
Kremlin  (the),  62,  66,  101 
Kublai-khan,  56 
Kurland,  Duke  of,  153 
Kuropatkin,  281 
Kutchko,  62 
Kutuzof,  181 

Lacour  (M.  de),  206 

Laharpe,  175 

Latin  Church,  31,  44,  45 

Leipsig,  183 

Leo  VI,  20 

Leo  X,  80,  81 

Liao-Tung,  Gulf  of,  253 

Liberalism,  222 

Li  Hung  Chang,  262. 

Li-Ito  Treaty,  262 

Lithuania,  59,  60,  63,  68,  84 

Lithuanians  (the),  13, 17,  59,  77 

Little  Russia,  106,  127 

Livonia,  124 

Livonian  Knights,  44,  54 

Livonian  Orders,  74 

Lombardy,  170 


INDEX. 


309 


Louis  IX,  50 
Louis  XI,  82,  83,  95 
Louis  XIV,  121,  126 
Louis  XV,  140 
Louis  Napoleon,  205 
Louis  Phillippe,  192,  201 
Lubeck,  45 

Magyar,  n 

Makaroff,  M.,  297,  298 

Makaroff,  Admiral,  277 

Malakof,  213 

Manchuria,  253 

Manchus  (the),  255 

Marco  Polo,  47 

Marfa,  90 

Maria  Theresa,  150 

Marie,  224 

Maximilian,  82 

Menschikof,  731,  142,  144,  145, 

206,  207,  210,  213 
Merienburg,  130 
Metropolitan  (the),  66 
Mickiewiz,  164 
Mikhailof,  Peter,  118 
Mir,  15,  57,  98 
Mir-eaters,  230 
Mirski,  Prince,  279,  280,  283 
Mohammedanism,  208 
Mongols,  48,  49,  51,  52,  56,  63 
Monomakh,  40,  61,  63 
Montenegro,  224,  226,  227 
Moscow,  54,  61,  63,  64,  66,  67, 

68,  70,  72,  74,  90,  181,  182 
Moskwa  (the),  62 
Mukden,  256,  277 
Muraviev,  250,  251,  283 


Muscovite,  66,  67 
Muscovy,  59,  65 
Mussulman,  27 

Napoleon  Bonaparte,  169,  170, 

171,  172,  177,  180,  183 
Narva,  Battle  of,  125 
Natalia,  108,  109,  in 
National  Assembly,   103,  290, 

292 

Nesselrode  (Count),  207 
Nestor,  22,  25 
Neva  (the),  4,  54 
Nevski,  Alexander,  54,  55,  63, 

69,  103 

Nevski,  Daniel,  63,  66 
Nicholas  I,  187,  188,  189,  190, 

191,  192,  194,  196,  199,  201, 

2O3,   2O8,   210 

Nicholas  II,  241 

Nicholas  III,  249 

Nihilism,  232,  237,  238 

Nikolaievsk,  250,  251 

Nikon  (Patriarch),  107,  109 

Nikopolis,  226 

Nogi,  General,  281 

Norse,  34 

Norsemen,  18,  25 

Novgorod,  14, 18,  26,  28, 35, 41, 

42,  43,  54,  55,  57,  65,  67,  74, 

79>  9° 

Odessa,  210 

Oka  (the),  76 

Oleg,  19,  20,  21,  26,  71 

Olga,  21,  23,  28 

Osterman,  148 


INDEX. 


Othman,  70,  71 

Ottoman,  70 

Ottoman    Empire,    158,    166, 

226,  227 
Oyama,  281 

Paleologisk,  John,  73 
Pantheon,  14 
Paris,  Treaty  of,  184 
Patkul,  124,  126 
Patriarchalism,  217 
Patriarchate  (the),  135 
Patriarchs,  30 
Paul  I,  159,  167,  168,  170,  171, 

172,  173 

Peace  Conference,  287 
Peace  Congress,  242 
Pechcnegs,  20,  23,  24 
Pechili,  Gulf  of,  253 
Peloponnesus  (the),  13,  24 
Perry,  Commodore,  258 
Perun,  14,  20,  24,  27,  28,  29,  59 
Pestel,  188,  189 
Peter  the  Great,  95,  104,  109, 
112,  113,  114,  116,  117,  118, 
120,  121,  122,  125,  127,  132, 

135»  *39>  MS.  *74>  *76 
Peter  III,  151,  168 
Plague  of  Moscow,  158 
Plevna,  226 

Pobiedonosteeff,  278,  283 
Poland,  13,  32,  50,  59,  60,  68, 

105,  156,  162,  163,  164,  221 
Poles,  77 
Poliani  (the),  13 
Polovtsui  (the),  46,  48 
Poltova,  129 


Pope,  44 

Pope  Leo  VI,  38 

Port   Arthur,    253,    264,    278, 

279 

Portsmouth,  Peace  of,  290 
Posadnik,  38,  42,  45 
Potemkin,  166 
Proteus,  14 
Prussia,  45,  162 
Pruth,  Treaty  of,  133 
Pskof,  18,  74,  78,  79 
Pugatschek,  the  Cossack,  158 
Pushkin,  20 
Pyrennes,  72 

Raskolinks,  107,  109,  no,  137, 

138 
Reinforced   Defense,   Law   of, 

296,  298 

Revolution  of  1762,  155 
Rojestvenski,  286 
Rollo,  25 

Roman  Empire,  31,  32 
Romanoff,  86,  301 
Romanoff,  Mikhail,   103,   104, 

105,  107 
Rome,  31,  32 
Romish  Church,  105 
Rosen,  Baron,  287 
Roosevelt,  President,  287,  289 
Roumania,  226 
Ruileef,  189 
Rurik,  18,  21,  34,  46,  66,  71, 

103,  249 
Russian  Academy,  160 


INDEX. 


Sagas,  38 

Saghalien,  289,  290 

Samurai,  257 

San  Stefano  (Treaty  of),  226 

Saracen,  13,  50 

Saral,  55,  56,  65,  69,  271 

Saxons,  25 

Scandinavia,  37 

Scandinavians,  17,  25,  26,  27, 

29 

Scythians,  6,  7,  14,  24 
Sea  of  Azof,  12,  46,  48 
Sebastopol,  7,  164,  210 
Senate,  135 

Sergius,  Grand  Duke,  284 
Servia,  226,  227 
Shantung,  266 
Shintoism,  257 
Shipka  Pass,  226 
Siberia,  93 
Siberia,  Maritime  Provinces  of, 

252 

Sienkiewicz,  164 
Sigismund,  81,  102 
Silvesta,  87 
Sineus,  18 
Sisalpine,  170 
Slav,  8,  12, 15, 17,  18,  24,  26,  27 

32,  34>  36>  37»  43.  44 
Slavonia,  19,  58 
Slavonic,  15,  24,  25,  36,  50 
Sober,  95,  97,  135 
Socialism,  232 
Sophia,  73,  81,  in,  113,  114, 

117,  118,  122 

Sophia,  Queen  of  Prussia,  118 
Sophia  Perovskaya,  238 


Spain,  25 

Speranski,  179,  185 

St.  Basil,  Church  of,  29 

St.  Bartholomew,  Massacre,  92 

Stoessel,  General,  281 

St.  Paul,  Cathedral  of,  130 

St.  Petersburg,  125,  126 

St.  Vladimir,  101 

Stratford  de  Redcliffe  (Lord), 

206,  207 
Stribog,  14 

Strultsui,  115,  116,  121,  123 
Suez  Canal,  224 
Suleyman,  the  Magnificent,  197 
Suvorov,  170 
Suzdal,  40,  43,  46,  52,  61 
Sviatoslaf,  22,  23,  24,  26 
Sweden,  74,  124,  180 
Swedes,  54 
Sword-Bearers,  44 

Tai-Tsiu,  255 

Tartar,  8,  20,  21,  46,  49,  51,  63 

Takahira,  Kogaro,  287 

Taxes,  229 

Tchinovniks,  231 

Teutonic  Order,  44 

Togo,  Admiral,  286 

Tokio,  287,  289 

Tolstoi,  141,  144 

Tong-Hak  Rebellion,  263 

Top  Knot  (the),  273 

Topography,  i 

Trans-Siberian   Railway,    267, 

270 

Treaty  of  1841,  203 
Treaty  with  China,  1858,  251 


3ia 


INDEX. 


Truvor,  18 

Tsar,  33 

Tsarkoe-Selo,  Palace  of,  286 

Tsushima,  286 

Turguenief,  200,  232 

Turk  (the),  8, 9, 17,  70,  71, 132, 

153 

Turkey,  170 

Turkish  Empire,  204,  208 
Tycoon,  258 

United  States,  202 
Ural,  3,  93 
Ussuri  Region,  252 
Usury,  229 

Vampires,  14 
Varangians,  18,  20 
Vasili,  66,  67,  68 
Vasili  II,  71,  72,  78,  79 
Vasili  Shuiski,  102 
Verestchagin,  245 
Vernet,  Horace,  128 
Vetche",  15,  42-,  55 
Viborg,  299 
Vich,  147 

Victor  Emmanuel,  213 
Visigoths,  25 
Vistula,  13 

Vladimir,  26,  28,  29,  32,  34,  35, 
182 


Vladivostock,  252,  254,  286 

Vna,  147 

Volga  (the),  3,  12,  42 

Volkof  (the),  28 

Volost,  15,  98,  220 

Volus,  14 

Von  Plehve,  278,  279,  280 

Warsaw,  University  of,  194 
Wei-Hai-Wei,  Battle  of,  1895, 

264 

Western  Empire  (the),  38 
White  Seat  (the),  91 
Winter  Palace,  283,  285,  287, 

288,  294 
William  I,  223 
William  III,  120 
Witte  (M.  de),  278 

Yalu,  the,  264 
Yaroslaf  I,  35,  38,  54 
Yaroslaf  II,  52 
Yaropolk,  26 
Yellow  Sea  (the),  253 
Yermak,  94,  250 

Zemstvo,   220,   239,   280,   291, 

302 

Zoe,  Princess,  73 
Zone  of  Forests,  4 


Date  Due 


APR     8 

RFHD  M/  R  2  g  J973 


PRINTED    IN    U.».» 


CAT.    NO     24    161 


UC  SOUTHERN  REGIONAL  LIBRARY  FACILITY 


A     000  804  946     2 


